Apple and India’s telecoms regulator are at loggerheads for more than a year over privacy issues, but currently, it appears a tentative compromise has been reached, with the tech company agreeing to help the Indian government develop an anti-spam app for its iOS platform.
The original argument concerns the telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) and its unsuccessful push to get Apple to include its ‘Do Not Disturb’ software in the App Store. The app permits people to share spam numbers with TRAI, that passes the info on to carriers so that spammers will be blocked. Spam calls are an enormous drawback in India, but Apple claims such an app would violate its privacy policy — a similar privacy policy that says that the corporate is ready to share user data with affiliates and strategic partners.
According to documents seen by Reuters, Apple — keen to continue its expansion in India — has currently relented, albeit marginally. Executives are said to have flown to New Delhi last month and agreed with TRAI that the corporate would facilitate develop the anti-spam app in question, but with restricted capabilities. Some functions — like making call logs available within in the app to report calls as spam — might not be approved on Apple’s side, with a spokesperson for the company saying Apple had not modified its stance on privacy.
Nonetheless, it’s unusual to see a tech titan of this size back down on a problem it’s always prepared to play hardball with, but Apple has ambitious plans for India — where half a billion smartphones are sold by 2020 — and it cannot execute them without TRAI onside.
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