TRAI chairman RS Sharma accuses Apple of being anti-consumer by not allowing the 'Do Not Disturb' app

TRAI Chairman RS Sharma has accused Apple of being anti-consumer by not allowing TRAI’s Do Not Disturb app on the Apple App Store. The application is available on the Play Store for Android smartphones.  The application allows users to set a “Do Not Disturb” status to block calls from registered telemarketers. There is an intelligent spam detection engine for SMS and a status field for actions taken against complaints within the application itself. [caption id=“attachment_3856247” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative Image Reuters[/caption] The application crowdsources data for detecting and preventing communication from unregistered telemarketers. Apparently, TRAI has been in discussions with Apple to allow the application on the App Store, but Apple has not been co-operative. TRAI Chairman RS Sharma told TOI, “While Google’s Android supports our Do-Not-Disturb (DND) app, Apple has just been discussing, discussing, and discussing. They have not done anything.” RS Sharma further goes on to accuse Apple of being “anti-consumer” by not allowing users to share the data that is available on their devices with third parties. According to TRAI, the consumers should have a choice of what to do with the call and SMS records available on their Apple devices, and be able to share this information with TRAI. The consumer stands to benefit if the call records are allowed to be shared with telecom operators and the regulators, according to TRAI. The App Store review guidelines does not seem to have any rule specifically disallowing the functionality offered by the Do Not Disturb app, but it’s likely that the design of the operating system prevents such access to data. iOS does have an inbuilt function for blocking calls and messages, but this has to be manually enabled for every number.