The app, called Do Not Disturb, allows Indian citizens to easily report texts and phone calls as spam. Sounds like a good thing, right? The problem is Apple has held concerns that helping the Indian government build the app for iOS raises privacy issues for its users as the app would have access to the iPhone’s call and text logs–and thus the government potentially would too. Now Reuters is reporting that Apple has agreed to help the government develop the app, but with “limited capabilities,” which may give the app the ability to report spam texts, but not access the iPhone’s call logs.
So if Apple has privacy concerns, why help the Indian government at all? Simple: commerce. The company is trying to gain a bigger foothold in India’s massive smartphone market–the third largest in the world. It’s currently seeking tax breaks to extend its iPhone assembly operations in India.
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