[governance] GPS mandatory on all mobile phones to be manufactured in India.

[Guru Acharya]

While I agree with Ang's and Harish's analysis, I would still highlight
concerns about a technology regulation policy instrument that mandates a
particular brand of technology, thereby precluding competition and
innovation.

GPS has other alternatives such as GLONASS, GALILEO and GNSS. While I
haven't seen the original executive notification by the Central Government,
 I would be concerned if they specifically mandated the use of GPS. The GPS
is designed and maintained by the US government and a lot of IPR royalty
flows to companies in the US for every GPS chipset that is manufactured and
sold anywhere in the world.

The Government should instead consider using a performance regulation
policy instrument that mandates performance parameters (eg. The device
should accurately determine location upto 5 meters), which effectively
allows the device manufacturers and consumers to choose a positioning
technology of their choice.

On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 12:19 PM, Ang Peng Hwa (Prof) <TPHANG at ntu.edu.sg>
wrote:

> Thanks Harish.
>
> The concerns I have seen re GPS chips are misplaced then. The concerns
> should really be about the use of the data by other apps. And a lot of them
> are gathering excessively already.
>
> The possible abuse of a technology should not be a reason not to have the
> technology. All powerful technologies are susceptible to abuse.
>
> Regards,
> ANG Peng Hwa
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> From: Harish Pillay <harish.pillay at gmail.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 11:18 AM
> To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org,Sivasubramanian M <isolatedn at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [governance] GPS mandatory on all mobile phones to be
> manufactured in India.
> CC: George Sadowsky <george.sadowsky at gmail.com>,"Ang Peng Hwa (Prof)" <
> TPHANG at ntu.edu.sg>
>
> > In this article, the sub-section titled "malware can turn on webcam" is
> what
> > causes concern. This danger is explained in greater detail in the article
> >
> http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/how-hackers-can-switch-on-your-webcam-and-control-your-computer-20130328-2gvwv.html
> >
> > My concern about GPS is on a similar abuse of technology.
>
> The GPS chips are receive only. The information it receives is then used
> by whatever application to then do as the application pleases based on
> the permissions granted to the application by the device.
>
> Most technologies have dual purpose possibilities. A person trying to
> track her family via GPS enabled devices and appropriate apps would say
> that this is a wonderful thing and at the same time, be concerned that
> since
> she can track her family, so can anyone else. What is needed is trusted
> applications that declare what they are doing (along with view of the
> source code)
> to ensure that nothing is amiss and that there is a clear and defined set
> of considerations that are enumerated and understood.
>
> Harish
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