The Uttar Pradesh government, through its Digishakti portal, sought to allay fears of hacking of data on the recently distributed smartphones and tablets, saying the equipment were safe.

Brushing aside the fear of hacking, a government official said that it would do everything to ensure the safety of personal information of the students in the state.

“We understand the need to ensure safety and security of mobile phones or smartphones that hold valuable information of users as they use the phone to make digital payments and have personal data," the official said in Lucknow on Thursday.

Many types of misconceptions are being spread among the youth regarding tablets and smartphones on behalf of the opposition parties, he added.

“Personal information like call and web browsing history, email and text messages, contacts, calendar, passwords, pictures, including those stored in Photos App or camera roll, files and phone number, apps and data in personal profile are not tracked,” said.

Denying the questions being raised about the privacy of these tablets and smartphones distributed by the government to the youth, the official clarified that the government could not monitor personal data.

The MDM enrolment has been done for the enterprise deployment of the devices. This ensures that enterprise-grade security features are available in the device. It prevents the device from data loss, phishing and blocks malware. If the device gets stolen, it can be remotely locked by the admin when the end-user reports such device loss.