Mobile Privacy Issues India: The controversy over Sanchar Sathi app has subsided. But, Sanchar Sathi 2.0 is going to be launched soon. This time the central government itself has not come forward. Telecom companies are on the front foot. He has proposed location tracking of phones to the government. Meaning Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has proposed to continuously monitor the phone location. COAI includes Airtel, Jio, Vodafone Idea. Under this, on the orders of the government, smartphone companies will always have to keep the location on in the phone. Meaning, the user will not be able to turn it off even if he wants to.
Samsung, Apple and Google have expressed opposition to this proposal of the telecom industry. Smartphone makers have opposed this proposal due to privacy concerns. Reuters has given this information quoting emails, documents and sources.
Actually, the investigating agencies are not able to get the precise location of a person when needed in legal matters. The location received by the device is the location of the nearest tower. Firstly, this location is not accurate, secondly it can be switched off easily. To deal with this, COAI has proposed Always On.
Users will not be able to turn off their phone’s GPS location even if they want to. If the government accepts the proposal, then smartphone manufacturing companies will have to activate A-GPS technology. This technology uses cellular data along with satellite signals. A-GPS technology is used to make calls in times of emergency. In simple words, satellite network call. Many smartphones of Apple, Google and Samsung come with this feature. But, it is used only in emergency. With its help, the location of the device can be tracked to a few meters.
Google, Apple, Samsung have opposed the proposal of telecom companies. The Indian Cellular and Electronics Association has said that device level tracking is not used anywhere in the world. ICEA represents Google and Apple. The meeting of the Home Ministry with top executives of the smartphone industry in this matter was to be held on December 5, which has been postponed. At present no company has said anything officially in the matter.
Let us tell you, smartphone companies have made many major changes regarding location tracking in the last few years. No app on the phone can track location without the user’s permission. Currently the user is given the options of ALways On, While Using The App and Never. When Always On is on, a popup will appear continuously on the phone stating that this app is tracking your location.
