Apple has reportedly refused to approve Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) new anti-spam App on its App Store, sparking a new controversy.
According to a report by Bloomberg, TRAI has been trying to include its latest Do Not Disturb application on App Store, but the Cupertino-based giant has denied it stating that the app violates its privacy policy. “Nobody’s asking Apple to violate its privacy policy,” RAM Sewak Sharma, chairman of TRAI told the publication. “It is a ridiculous situation, no company can be allowed to be the guardian of a user’s data,” he added further.
The new app from TRAI basically allows users to share logs of spam call and text message with the regulator. The data is then used to alert the operators to block the spammers. This could possibly hinder the Apple’s efforts to expand in India. The company has been in talks with the government to open retail stores, tax exemptions on local manufacturing and the permission to sell used iPhones in India.
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The US-based handset manufacturer has already begun the assembly process in India. Apple officials have recently gone on record and claimed that the first phase of production had begun in May 2017 at its Wistron facility located in Bengaluru.
The regulator has reportedly held several meeting with Apple, but as of now, the brand continues to standoff on this matter. “The problem of who controls user data is getting acute and we have to plug the loose ends,” Sharma said. “This is not the regulator versus Apple, but Apple versus its own users.”