TRAI to take legal action against Apple

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is mulling to take legal action against the tech giant Apple for a delay in taking steps to support TRAI's Do Not Disturb app (DND app) on the Apple app store to enable users to flag unsolicited calls and messages.

The application, that is available on the Play Store for Android smartphones, allows users to set a "Do Not Disturb" status to block calls from unregistered telemarketers.

RS Sharma, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said he is considering legal action against tech behemoth. He had also accused the Apple of being anti-consumer and raised concern over their non-cooperative attitude. Sharma, however, did not provide details on a course of legal action TRAI might take against Apple.

Earlier in November last year, the iPhone maker had agreed to provide a framework on its iOS operating system to support the regulator’s mobile app, reported ET. Since then both the regulatory body and the iPhone maker have not met.

Last week, Apple reportedly said that government app violates the privacy policy of its App store. It had further added that it would continue discussing ways they can design their app to keep users’ personal data safe.

Apple is yet clear its official stand on the matter. Entrackr's queries to Apple in this regard is yet to receive a response.

Apple iOS has an inbuilt function for blocking calls and messages, this needs to be manually enabled for every number.

TRAI, time and again, has emphasised that the consumers should have a choice of what to do with the call and SMS records available on their Apple devices, and be able to share this information with TRAI. The consumer stands to benefit if the call records are allowed to be shared with telecom operators and the regulators, the regulatory body had said.

On the issue of customer data and privacy, the regulatory had issued a consultation paper on privacy, ownership and security of data on telecom networks last year.

The Android version of TRAI’s DND app was launched in 2016. Once downloaded, the app requires users permissions to access contacts and view text messages and then allows users to report them as spam.