Government considering always-on phone location tracking, Apple and Samsung pushing for privacy: Report
Following the Sanchar Saathi app controversy, the government is reportedly considering making mandatory always-on-location tracking of all smartphones in India, with brands like Apple, Samsung and Google said to be against it due to privacy concerns.
India’s government is reviewing a telecom industry proposal to force smartphone companies to enable always-on satellite location tracking for better surveillance, which Apple, Google and Samsung have opposed over privacy concerns, according to documents, emails and five sources.
A fierce privacy debate erupted in India this week when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was forced to rescind an order requiring smartphone makers to preload a state-run cybersecurity app on all devices after activists and politicians raised concerns about potential spying.
For years, the Modi administration has been concerned that its agencies are not getting precise locations when legal requests are made to telecom companies during investigations. Under the current system, companies are limited to using cellular tower data that can only provide approximate field locations, which can be off by several meters.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents Reliance’s Jio and Bharti Airtel, has proposed that precise user location should be provided only if the government orders smartphone makers to activate A-GPS technology – which uses satellite signals and cellular data – according to a June interior federal IT ministry email.
This will require location services to be always active in smartphones and users will have no option to disable them. Apple and Alphabet’s Google have told New Delhi it should not be made mandatory, three sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations said.
The measure to track device-level location has no precedent anywhere else in the world, lobby group India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), which represents both Apple and Google, wrote in a confidential July letter to the government, seen by Reuters.
“The A-GPS network service…is not deployed or supported for location monitoring,” the letter said, adding that the measure “would be a regulatory overreach.”
‘Dedicated Monitoring Tools’
India’s Home Ministry had scheduled a meeting of top smartphone industry executives for Friday to discuss the matter, but it was postponed, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. On Thursday, Reuters sent questions related to this topic to the ministry.
India’s IT and home ministries, both of which are analyzing the proposal for the telecom industry, did not respond to Reuters questions.
Apple, Samsung, Google, Reliance and Airtel did not respond to requests for comment. Lobby groups ICEA and COAI also did not respond.
At this point, no policy decision has been taken by the IT or Home Ministry. Taking advantage of A-GPS technology – which typically only turns on when certain apps are running or when emergency calls are being made – the technology can provide authorities with location data so accurate that a user can be tracked to within about a meter, according to experts. “The proposal would see the phone act as a dedicated surveillance device,” said Junaid Ali, a digital forensics expert with Britain’s Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Cooper Quintin, a security researcher at the US-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, called it “very scary”, saying he had not heard of any similar proposal anywhere else. Governments around the world regularly look for new ways to better track cellphone users’ activities or data. Russia has made the installation of state-backed communications apps mandatory on all mobile phones in the country.
Telecom vs Smartphone Companies
Counterpoint Research says India is the world’s second-largest mobile market with 735 million smartphones by mid-2025, with Google’s Android powering more than 95% of devices, while the rest use Apple’s iOS.
Apple and Google’s lobby group, ICEA, argued in its July letter that there are significant “legal, privacy and national security concerns” with the telecom group’s proposal.
It warned that their user base would include military people, judges, corporate executives and journalists, saying that the proposed location tracking threatened their security because they held sensitive information.
The telecom group said the old method of location tracking is also becoming problematic, as smartphone makers show users a pop-up message alerting them that their “carrier is attempting to access your location.”
“A target can easily find out that security agencies are tracking him,” the telecom group said, urging the government to order phone makers to disable pop-up features. Privacy concerns should be prioritized and India should not even consider disabling pop-ups, the group of Apple and Google argued in its July letter to the government. This will “ensure transparency and user control over their location.”
