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NEW DELHI: A new controversy seems to be building up over discussions within govt for satellite-assisted location tracking of mobile phone users for the needs of law enforcement agencies and disaster management officials.The matter, which has been in discussion for over five years now, had seen a suggestion by the mobile phone operators lobby, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), that govt order compulsory activation of A-GPS technology. This uses satellite and mobile data to give accurate and accelerated location of an individual. However, no action has been taken on the matter by the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity), which had been conducting talks with the industry — both mobile operators as well as device makers. Currently, phone operators provide location of individuals by tracking users through mobile towers, which lack pinpoint accuracy, while also being delayed in giving the coordinates.Sources said not much progress had been made in five years around implementation over issues related to user privacy as well as reluctance of device makers such as Apple and Samsung over mandated activation. The device makers argue that user consent needs to be taken before activation of pinpoint satellite-based location tracking. Also, they have expressed fears that other service providers, and even hackers, may misuse the always-on location tracking services, violating user privacy.The issue has come to the fore at a time when govt rescinded on a plan to mandate pre-installation of Sanchar Saathi app after outcry over possible state surveillance as well as user privacy violations. In this case too, global manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung had told the department of telecom — which had issued the pre-installation order — of their objections to the measure, citing user privacy.
