india Considers Mandating Permanent GPS Tracking on Smartphones

India’s government is examining a controversial proposal from the telecom industry that would mandate that Apple, Google, and Samsung permanently enable advanced GPS tracking on all devices.

The proposal has triggered significant pushback from tech giants, who argue it represents an unprecedented intrusion into user privacy and security.

the debate comes on the heels of a major government reversal.India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi administration was forced to rescind a mandate requiring all smartphone makers to preload a government-run cyber safety app following widespread criticism from privacy advocates and opposition politicians.

That decision highlighted the growing tension between India’s surveillance ambitions and its citizens’ privacy expectations, a conflict now playing out on a new front.

The Technical Push Behind Enhanced Tracking

For years, the Modi administration has expressed frustration with existing location capabilities.

When law enforcement agencies submit legal requests for user location data, telecommunications companies can only provide approximate positions based on cellular tower data, frequently enough with errors spanning several kilometers. This limited accuracy hinders investigations and emergency response efforts.