India reviews always-on A-GPS tracking plan for phones

news.kagi.com

3 points·hereme888··5 comments

So this is supposedly Telecom Operators proposing to the government that location services on phones should be permanently on. They argue that more precise device-level coordinates will help law-enforcement agencies during investigations, since current cell-tower based data only gives an approximate area.

How bizarre is it that telcos are pushing something that is a law enforcement concern. They’re not also suggesting phones should automatically switch off at night on behalf of the department of education because students who sleep more have better academic outcomes, are they?

Wouldn’t a more likely explanation be that they can sell your location data for more money this way?

"ICEA, which represents Apple and Google in India, warned in a confidential letter that forcing device-level tracking via A‑GPS would be a regulatory overreach and has no equivalent precedent in other countries."

So your theory would have to mean their national Telcos would benefit financially, but not Apple or Google.

Exactly - the device makers don’t want this, but the telecoms operators do - supposedly for the law enforcement benefits. I’m saying it’s more likely the operators can make money selling high-resolution location data than that they’re concerned with catching criminals.

Ah, I see what you're saying.

The surprising part isn’t the proposal itself, but how casually “always-on location” keeps getting reframed as a safety feature instead of a massive expansion of the data surface. Any system that normalizes continuous device-level tracking tends to get repurposed far beyond its original intent. History shows the problem isn’t why it’s introduced — it’s what it inevitably gets used for later.

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