India’s government is currently assessing a telecom industry suggestion to require smartphone manufacturers to enable continuous satellite location tracking for enhanced surveillance. Apple, Google, and Samsung have expressed opposition to this proposal citing privacy concerns, as per documents, emails, and insider sources.
The privacy discourse in India intensified this week following the government’s retreat from its directive mandating smartphone producers to preinstall a state-controlled cyber safety application on all devices, amidst objections raised by activists and lawmakers over potential surveillance risks.
Concerns have long existed within the Modi administration regarding the lack of precise location data available to its agencies when requesting information from telecom companies during investigations. Presently, these companies are restricted to utilizing cellular tower data, which can only provide an approximate location, sometimes with a deviation of several meters.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), representing Reliance’s Jio and Bharti Airtel, has suggested that accurate user locations should be disclosed only if the government instructs smartphone manufacturers to activate A-GPS technology, utilizing satellite signals and cellular data, according to an internal email from the federal IT ministry in June.
This proposal entails mandatory activation of location services on smartphones without the option for users to deactivate them, a stance objected to by Apple and Google in discussions with New Delhi, as disclosed by three knowledgeable sources.
According to a confidential letter dated July from the India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), which advocates for both Apple and Google, a measure enforcing device-level location tracking has no precedence globally and would constitute regulatory overreach.
While the India home ministry had planned a meeting with top smartphone industry executives to deliberate on the matter, it was postponed, as per a reliable source. Queries related to this issue directed to the IT and home ministries by Reuters remain unanswered.
Apple, Samsung, Google, Reliance, and Airtel, along with lobby groups ICEA and COAI, refrained from commenting on the matter. As of now, no policy decisions have been finalized by the IT or home ministries. Leveraging A-GPS technology could potentially offer authorities highly precise location data, enabling tracking of users to within a meter, experts suggest.
Junade Ali, a digital forensics expert affiliated with the Institution of Engineering and Technology in Britain, remarked that this proposal could essentially convert phones into dedicated surveillance devices. Contrarily, Cooper Quintin, a security researcher at the U.S.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, expressed alarm at the lack of precedence for such a proposal, deeming it “pretty horrifying.”
Governments worldwide frequently explore novel methods to enhance tracking of cellphone users. For instance, Russia has enforced the installation of a state-endorsed communications app on all mobile devices in the country.
India, being the second-largest mobile market globally with 735 million smartphones as of mid-2025, predominantly utilizes Google’s Android on over 95% of devices, with the remaining running on Apple’s iOS, as reported by Counterpoint Research.
In a letter sent in July, the ICEA, representing Apple and Google, highlighted significant legal, privacy, and national security apprehensions regarding the telecom industry’s proposition.
The lobby group cautioned that their user base comprises individuals from various sectors like the military, judiciary, corporate hierarchy, and journalism, emphasizing the heightened security risks posed by proposed location tracking due to the sensitive information these users possess.
Additionally, the telecom group raised concerns over the existing location tracking method, whereby users are alerted through pop-up messages when their location is accessed by the carrier, potentially revealing surveillance activities. The group advocated for disabling these pop-up notifications to prevent targets from identifying tracking attempts by security agencies.
In their July letter to the government, Apple and Google’s consortium stressed the importance of preserving privacy by retaining the pop-up notifications intact to ensure transparency and user control over their location data.