In November Patently Apple posted a report titled "After a Long Battle with India's Telecom Regulatory Authority, Apple agrees to Develop a custom Anti-Spam App." All seemed to be in the process of being resolved but in light of Apple caving to the Chinese government, Apple now seems to be backing off their agreement with India's telecom authority.

Apple told Reuters that "the government app "as envisioned violates the privacy policy" of its App Store. Apple said it had been working with government engineers and would "continue discussing ways they can design their app to keep users' personal data safe."

Yet Apple's stance has irked the head of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), R.S. Sharma, who says he will consult his legal team on how Apple could be pushed to help develop the application more swiftly.

Sharma told Reuters in an interview that "We will take appropriate legal action. This is unjust, it shows the approach and attitude of this company." He did not elaborate on what action the regulator might take.

Any outright legal challenge by Sharma - an official who has previously worked as the federal IT secretary - is likely to be harder for TRAI to pursue as it directly regulates only licensed telecom providers.

Nevertheless, Sharma could request the department of telecommunications - which he works closely with - to invoke a decades-old law that allows the government to impose regulations even on handset makers, according to two Indian lawyers who specialize in technology policy.

'It's likely to be more of a public relations battle against Apple rather than a legal one,' said Kunal Bajaj, a former TRAI consultant." For more on this, read the full Reuters report here.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.