
Apple’s Refusal to Approve India’s Anti-Spam App Angers Regulators - xbmcuser
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-09-06/apple-refusal-to-approve-india-spam-app-antagonizes-regulator
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th1nkdifferent
Looks like TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has an Android version
of the app as well
([https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=trai.gov.in.dn...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=trai.gov.in.dnd)).
Permissions requested by the Android app seem to be very broad (Reading call
log, Sending & Receiving SMS etc.) If they tried the same thing with Apple, I
am not surprised that Apple has blocked their app. Such permissions can be
used to easily snoop on a user's activity by Government entities.

What Mr.Sharma does not seem to get is Apple is very particular about user
privacy. In the past users have been tricked into giving out their private
data or scammed into subscribing to really expensive subscriptions by scammy
apps ([http://thehackernews.com/2017/06/apple-subscription-
scam.htm...](http://thehackernews.com/2017/06/apple-subscription-scam.html))

I am not saying TRAI's app is going to scam users but Apple's concern is
genuine. TRAI can work around it by changing the away the app collects the
spam call data from a user's phone. They certainly don't need the entire call
history.

Here's where things get odd. TRAI has a tough job on its hands too. They
cannot simply allow users to report any phone numbers as spam callers without
verifying it. The reason is simple. It opens up the possibility of misuse via
fraudulent reports. Those who have dealt with the Indian market will recall
that fraud is rampant in the system - both by users as well as businesses.

