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TRAI Vs Apple: The Data Wars Begin?

TRAI-Apple tussle for backdoor access to iPhones continues.



Apple iPhone 5SE (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
Apple iPhone 5SE (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

More than a year and a half after it faced off with America’s federal investigators over unlocking the iPhone of terror suspects, Apple Inc. has now angered India’s telecom regulator on backdoor access to its handsets.

In the U.S., it was a specific case, where a couple killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California during a holiday party. In India, the demand to access Apple phones is on a bigger scale.

In both the countries, Apple has stood its ground saying it will never compromise customer privacy.

The friction between Apple, which last year shipped 3.5 million handsets to India and recently began assembling phones in Bengaluru, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is over the regulator’s DND (do not disturb) Services app aimed at blocking spam messages and pesky callers. The application, available on the Android platform, requires access to a customer’s call logs, messages and other details. More than a year into its launch, the app is yet to make its debut on Apple’s App Store.

TRAI Chairman RS Sharma has accused the tech giant of being “anti-consumer” in India and engaging in “data colonisation”, according to a report in the Times of India.

Apple must let its users report spam messages and pesky callers to the government as customers have the right to decide how their data should be used, Sharma told BloombergQuint on Tuesday. “The fundamental question to ask is about data ownership. Who owns the data and whether his right of sharing of data, using of data can be curtailed by any third party including any platform.”

The Apple Inc., iPhone 5S showing iOS 7 is displayed for a photograph in San Francisco, California, U.S. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
The Apple Inc., iPhone 5S showing iOS 7 is displayed for a photograph in San Francisco, California, U.S. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

Apple rejects applications built on private Application Programming Interfaces, a set of protocols and tools used to build apps. The company insists that third-party developers must use public APIs, as this offers in-built encryption and an enhanced user experience.

This is why many apps work differently on Android and iOS. To illustrate, popular caller ID app Truecaller identifies an unknown caller and displays the name on the screen immediately of an Android phone. On an iPhone, the app is not as intrusive and perhaps as convenient. Instead, a user needs to copy the unknown number individually and search for it in the Truecaller database.

It’s not clear whether TRAI’s DND application uses a public or a private API.

Apple, which says it has been in talks with TRAI for the past year, declined to comment specifically on the issue to BloombergQuint.

A company spokesperson referred to their privacy policy from Apple’s website, where CEO Tim Cook is quoted as saying, “At Apple, your trust means everything to us. That's why we respect your privacy and protect it with strong encryption, plus strict policies that govern how all data is handled... I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.”

Google Play Store
TRAI’s DND Application is only available on Google’s Play Store.

What does TRAI’s DND App Do?

Google’s Play Store describes the DND Services App as one that enables Android phone users to register their mobile number under DND, “to avoid Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC)/ Telemarketing Calls / SMS.”

The updated version of the app has the following features:

  • An intelligent spam detection engine (for SMS only) to assist the subscriber in reporting
  • Crowdsourcing of data about offensive messages and calls to speed up detection of unregistered telemarketers
  • Updates about action taken on complaints within the App
  • Easier interface and set up