What Is A-GPS Surveillance and Why Smartphone Users in India Should Be Concerned

India once again has an intense discussion regarding the issue of privacy versus digital surveillance. As per reports, the Indian government is considering a proposal that will lead to involuntary co-ordination of the customer's full location by the satellites, on the smartphones—this has evoked vehement resistance from the likes of Apple, Google, and Samsung, the giants in tech.

As per the documents and sources that Reuters has gained access to, the proposal would make it compulsory for smartphone manufacturers to have A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) switched on at all times and to allow the officials to access the data of the users' locations with great precision and in real-time. If this proposal gets implemented, it would be a radical change in the treatment of personal privacy in the digital sector of India.

Why Is the Indian Government Seeking Exact Location Data?

To the government, the most important aspect is that the telecom companies only give vague locations even if the law enforcement agencies ask for user data during the investigations. Today, locations are identified through mobile tower triangulation, which can at most tell the user’s broad area but not an exact spot.

To get over this barrier, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)—that includes the major telecom companies like Jio and Bharti Airtel—has come up with a suggestion to allow A-GPS tracking on smartphones. The A-GPS technology can detect a person's location within a meter making it much more precise than the existing method of manual tower triangulation.

But this proposal means users may not be able to turn off location services anymore which raises serious privacy concerns.

What Is A-GPS Surveillance?

A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) is a modern location technology that fuses:

• Satellite GPS signals
• Mobile network data
• Internet connectivity

The synergy of these three enables the mobile device to find its location much quicker and with a much greater accuracy than if it is only using the standard GPS. The A-GPS is ultimately very useful for not only navigation but also ride-hailing and emergency services, yet, its mandatory usage for surveillance is what triggers the most widespread concern.

The government could use the A-GPS to enable the smartphones for uninterrupted real-time tracking, thereby silently saving the movement patterns and the location history.

Why Smartphone Users in India Should Be Worried

The enactment of this proposal would introduce several severe negative implications, in particular for the users:

• Location tracking cannot be turned off
• No indication when the location is accessed
• Constant observation of the user's everyday movement
• Possibility of profiling, monitoring of behavior, and misuse
• Larger chances of stalking and unauthorised surveillance

Particularly for people in sensitive professions like journalists, activists, and government officials, serious concerns arise.

The privacy advocates regard the case of India as a potential first instance of a country, which will impose such constant satellite-level tracking by default, thus making a disturbing global precedent.

Tech Giants Push Back Over Privacy Risks

Companies such as Apple, Google, and Samsung have likely informed the Indian government that their users' privacy would be severely compromised due to the mandatory A-GPS. These corporations assert that location tracking should always be under the control of the user and should never be a government mandated standard.

A similar uproar in the past forced the government to retreat and no longer make the Sanchar Saathi app pre-installed on all smartphones—this shows how the privacy issue has gotten really sensitive among Indian customers.

What Happens Next?

Currently, there is no established official roadmap. Nevertheless, there is already an expectation of upcoming discussions among the Indian government, officials, and smartphone manufacturers. If the rule is made official, then an extremely strong resistance from the tech industry as well as the privacy groups is almost a certainty.

The outcome of this argument might well decide the fate of digital privacy, surveillance, and personal freedom for millions of Indian smartphone users.