According to MacRumors, India is reviewing a proposal that would require Apple and other smartphone makers to keep satellite-assisted GPS permanently active on every device sold there, with no option for users to turn it off. The push comes from the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which argues that cell tower location data isn’t precise enough for authorities, who need meter-level GPS coordinates. The COAI also wants to disable pop-up notifications that tell users when a carrier accesses location info. Apple formally opposed this in a July letter sent via the India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), warning the government this would be a severe regulatory overreach. This news follows India’s recent reversal of a separate, controversial order that would have forced preinstalled, unremovable government apps on phones.
Privacy, Battery, and Overreach
Okay, so let’s unpack this. Forcing a GPS chip to be always-on is a massive deal, and not in a good way. First, there’s the obvious, glaring privacy nightmare. Basically, it means creating a permanent, precise tracking beacon in every citizen’s pocket, accessible to carriers and, by extension, the government. And they want to hide the notifications? That’s a huge red flag. It completely dismantles the user consent model that companies like Apple have spent years building. But it’s not just privacy. Think about the battery life hit. GPS is a notorious power hog. An always-on GPS would absolutely cripple iPhone battery performance, turning a device that lasts a day into one you’d need to plug in by lunchtime. Apple’s opposition here is a no-brainer.
A Broader Pattern of Pushback
Here’s the thing: this isn’t happening in a vacuum. The report mentions India just backed down from forcing unremovable government apps onto phones after major criticism. That feels like a testing-the-waters strategy. Propose something extreme, see the backlash, maybe walk it back a bit, but keep pushing on other fronts like this GPS rule. It seems like authorities are trying to find any technical lever to gain persistent access. Apple’s letter calling it “regulatory overreach” is strong language for a company that usually treads carefully with governments. They must see this as a fundamental breach of their device integrity and user trust. The question is, will that argument hold weight in a strategic market like India?
The Industrial Parallel
This kind of mandate—forcing a specific, always-on hardware function—is something you more typically see in highly regulated industrial environments, not consumer tech. In those settings, reliability and consistent data access are non-negotiable for monitoring and control. It’s why companies in manufacturing and automation rely on specialized hardware from top suppliers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, for tasks that demand unwavering uptime and direct system access. But applying that always-on, no-questions-asked philosophy to billions of personal consumer devices? That’s a completely different ballgame with profound implications.
What Happens Next?
So what now? Apple’s playing a tough hand. India is a colossal growth market they can’t afford to alienate. But they also can’t afford to set a precedent that guts a core privacy feature globally. Other governments would line up for the same “backdoor.” I think we’ll see intense lobbying and maybe a search for some kind of technical compromise—but what would that even be? A special “India mode”? That seems unlikely and just as problematic. The fact that the app mandate was reversed gives a sliver of hope that pushback works. But this GPS idea is more insidious because it’s buried in the hardware’s operation. It’s a fight worth watching, because if it succeeds in India, it won’t stop there.
