India weighs always-on satellite tracking for phones; Apple, Google push back

India’s government is reviewing a proposal from the country’s telecom industry to require smartphone manufacturers to keep satellite-based location tracking permanently enabled, according to internal documents, emails and five people familiar with the discussions accessed by Reuters. The plan—framed as a way to improve law-enforcement capabilities—has drawn opposition from Apple, Google and Samsung, who argue it would violate global privacy norms.

The debate comes days after government withdrew an order that would have forced smartphone companies to preload a government cyber-safety app on all devices, following public outcry from activists and politicians who warned of possible surveillance.

Push for more accurate tracking

Indian authorities have long complained that they receive only approximate location data from telecom operators when making lawful information requests. Under current procedures, police and security agencies rely on cell-tower triangulation, which can have margins of error stretching several metres.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), representing the country’s major telecom networks, has argued that investigators need precise location information. In a June internal communication, India’s IT ministry said COAI had proposed that smartphones be required to activate Assisted-GPS (A-GPS), a technology that relies on satellite signals combined with cellular data to deliver highly accurate positioning.

Implementing the proposal would effectively force all smartphones to have location services permanently activated, with no option for users to turn them off. Three sources with direct knowledge of the talks said Apple, Samsung and Google have pushed back strongly in meetings with officials, warning that such a mandate would set a global precedent.

A confidential July letter to the government from the India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA)—a lobbying group representing both Apple and Google—warned that the measure would be unprecedented globally and posed grave privacy and legal risks, Reuters reported.

“The A-GPS network service … is not deployed or supported for location surveillance,” the letter said, calling the proposal “a regulatory overreach.” ICEA argued that the plan would undermine security for high-risk users such as judges, military personnel, senior executives and journalists, who often handle sensitive information.

The home ministry had planned a meeting with executives from major smartphone companies on Friday to discuss the proposal, but it was postponed, a source said. India’s IT and home ministries did not respond to Reuters’ questions.

Governments internationally have experimented with new ways to track mobile users. Russia, for instance, requires a state-backed communications app to be installed on all mobile phones.

India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market with about 735 million devices, overwhelmingly runs on Google’s Android system, with Apple accounting for a small but growing share, according to Counterpoint Research.

In its submission, the telecom group argued that even current, less precise forms of location tracking have become less effective because smartphone makers now alert users when a carrier attempts to access their location.

“A target can easily ascertain that he is being tracked by security agencies,” COAI said in its communication, urging the government to compel phone manufacturers to disable such pop-ups.

ICEA, representing Apple and Google, urged the government in its July letter to reject that idea, stressing that transparency and user control should be preserved. “This will ensure transparency and user control over their location,” it wrote.

Officials in the IT and home ministries are still evaluating the telecom industry’s proposal, and no final decision has been made.

The discussions highlight the growing tension in India between national-security priorities and the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of smartphone users—a debate that is increasingly echoing global concerns about surveillance and digital freedoms.