Apple says it will help make limited anti-spam iPhone app for Indian government

AppleInsider

Apple has reportedly bowed to pressure from the Indian government and will help it build an iPhone version of its "Do Not Disturb" anti-spam app, albeit with more limited capabilities than the Android version.

After a year of resistance, Apple executives -- including senior director for global privacy Jane Horvath -- flew to New Delhi in October and said the company would help with development, Reuters sources said on Wednesday. The company has allegedly explained that iOS may not allow for government requests such as access to call logs, which would let people flag spam more quickly. Apple normally prevents third-party apps from accessing call and SMS logs, for the sake of privacy.

An Apple spokesman said only that iOS features to fight text spam will help the government build the app, and that the company has developed a privacy-friendly solution.

An Android version of Do Not Disturb has been available since 2016, but despite seven or more meetings and regular email exchanges, an iPhone equivalent has been kept off the App Store due to Apple's privacy stance.

The company may need to curry favor with the Indian government to establish a better foothold in the country. There are still no Apple stores in India, owing to local sourcing requirements. To meet those requirements, and to grow marketshare by making iPhones more affordable, the company is looking to expand local manufacturing. It has asked for tax breaks, but those could be harder to get if the government feels Apple is being uncooperative.

viclauyyc

India, the populated democratic nation in the world.
Yet, india has so many problems of it’s own.

space2001

"...need to curry favor with the Indian government.."

I just got my morning smile, 
thanks!

wood1208

In country like India with weak law enforcement, Spam becomes becomes big pain.Even, rest of world, Spam calls, spam emails have become big nuisance. For that reason, we have Spam folder in email and call block on phone. People hate when they receive constant marketing, survey calls. How to respond to a telemarketer - The Seinfeld way -

Soli

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

heavypound

I deal with telemarketers by sending them to http://www.jollyrogertelco.com

smiffy31

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

igorsky

space2001 said:

"...need to curry favor with the Indian government.."

I just got my morning smile, 
thanks!

That's hilarious, thanks for pointing it out.

Rayz2016

I have a simple rule: if an unknown number doesn’t leave a message, it gets blocked. 

Soli

smiffy31 said:

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

Sweet! Installed and setup. Thanks.

anantksundaram

space2001 said:

"...need to curry favor with the Indian government.."

I just got my morning smile, 
thanks!

Actually, at one point, even I had thought that the phrase "curry favor" had to do with references to colonized Indians during the British Raj.

But it is not. Surprisingly, it is from 16th c. French.

boltsfan17

Soli said:

smiffy31 said:

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

Sweet! Installed and setup. Thanks.

Just downloaded it as well. Did you grant the app access to your contacts? 

Soli

boltsfan17 said:

Soli said:

smiffy31 said:

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

Sweet! Installed and setup. Thanks.

Just downloaded it as well. Did you grant the app access to your contacts? 

I did, after I both saw that they won't sell your info, did a little research of the company, and saw that after it's installed they can't ever see what your call history is. I usually never give access to my contacts. I even have plenty of other* information in my Contacts yet still gave access.

* To speed up my access to various companies I may have to call I use the comma and semi-colon to input pauses and waits into numbers I dial. For example, if I call a credit card company the first thing they ask after I press 1 for English is for me to input the 16-digit card number. Instead of pulling out my wallet I just have it programmed (1-800-555-1212,,1;1234567890123456)

boltsfan17

Soli said:

boltsfan17 said:

Soli said:

smiffy31 said:

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

Sweet! Installed and setup. Thanks.

Just downloaded it as well. Did you grant the app access to your contacts? 

I did, after I both saw that they won't sell your info, did a little research of the company, and saw that after it's installed they can't ever see what your call history is. I usually never give access to my contacts. I even have plenty of other* information in my Contacts yet still gave access.

* To speed up my access to various companies I may have to call I use the comma and semi-colon to input pauses and waits into numbers I dial. For example, if I call a credit card company the first thing they ask after I press 1 for English is for me to input the 16-digit card number. Instead of pulling out my wallet I just have it programmed (1-800-555-1212,,1;1234567890123456)

Thanks for the info. I'll finish setting up the app now. I just wasn't sure if I should grant access to my contacts or not since that's something I typically wouldn't do. 

Soli

boltsfan17 said:

Soli said:

boltsfan17 said:

Soli said:

smiffy31 said:

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

Sweet! Installed and setup. Thanks.

Just downloaded it as well. Did you grant the app access to your contacts? 

I did, after I both saw that they won't sell your info, did a little research of the company, and saw that after it's installed they can't ever see what your call history is. I usually never give access to my contacts. I even have plenty of other* information in my Contacts yet still gave access.

* To speed up my access to various companies I may have to call I use the comma and semi-colon to input pauses and waits into numbers I dial. For example, if I call a credit card company the first thing they ask after I press 1 for English is for me to input the 16-digit card number. Instead of pulling out my wallet I just have it programmed (1-800-555-1212,,1;1234567890123456)

Thanks for the info. I'll finish setting up the app now. I just wasn't sure if I should grant access to my contacts or not since that's something I typically wouldn't do. 

My credit to 4 bureaus is locked, modern finance systems notify me instantly of all transactions, and my password manager means that every account has a unique and complex password, recovery questions, and many with email addresses (i.e.: [email protected]; e.g.: [email protected]) so I’m not too concerned about my Contacts info being an issue.

My biggest concern are the utilities I pay online as they still mostly require a bank routing and checking account numbers. Those tend. It to have consumer protection and I’m pretty sure that the water company’s website doesn’t have great security if the website design is any indicator.

StrangeDays

my favorite tele-spam black hole is the "Hello, It's Lenny" project:

https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/



...people setup Lenny servers and you can forward your caller to it and awaaaay they go! One caller "talked" to Lenny for an hour.

dysamoria

This problem is only going to be solved by making telemarketing illegal. But, corporatocracy...

gatorguy

Soli said:

smiffy31 said:

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

Sweet! Installed and setup. Thanks.

I started to mention that app myself, but I assumed you were requesting Apple to preinstall it's own solution rather than 3rd party.. FWIW some of the Android OEM's have Hiya pre-installed and active as a default, part of their "skin". I had been using Hiya myself.

Soli

gatorguy said:

Soli said:

smiffy31 said:

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

Sweet! Installed and setup. Thanks.

I started to mention that app myself, but I assumed you were requesting Apple to preinstall it's own solution rather than 3rd party.. FWIW some of the Android OEM's have Hiya pre-installed and active as a default, part of their "skin". I had been using Hiya myself.

I was requesting that, but I also didn't know this was an option. I'd still prefer it to be built-in, for several obvious reasons, but I'm fine checking out the app.

tokyojimu

But Hiya doesn't help against the latest scourge, "neighbor spoofing", whereby they just use a different random number each time they call, usually using your same area code and prefix, so you figure it must be a neighbor. Checking its validity won't help either since it probably legitimately belongs to someone; just not the telemarketer. 

maestro64

smiffy31 said:

Soli said:

1) Colonization is a loaded word for India (and a million more places once dominated by the British).

2) I wish Apple would build into their phone app a service that would check the potential validity of a phone number. It should take no time at all to send that number to their Siri servers to then check against whatever database they would use and then send back any pertinent info to be displayed.

For your number 2, this has existed since iOS10, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-and-block/id986999874?mt=8.
 

You do not need to that, I put everyone I know number in my address book and if someone's name/picture does not come up i do not answer. At home if they will not talk to the answering machine I do not pick up. People this is not that hard to not answer the phone if it is not someone you know. I guess in India they have not figure it out yet. Maybe the suffer from FOMO and can not help but to answer the phone.

I bet it would be great to crank call them.