A Sydney medical student is urging tech firms and the Australian government to release phone location data that she says could narrow the search for her partner after Nepal’s August 26 glacier collapse.

The last known phone signals from 23-year-old medical student Rishab Iyer and his family stopped just before devastating floods struck following a glacier collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26. His partner, Sarada Viswanathan, also 23, says Apple, Optus and Life360 have declined family requests for location records on privacy grounds, despite placing the family near their hotel about 30 minutes before the disaster. The collapse has killed more than 1,200 people and left over 4,200 missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals and 38 Australians.

Viswanathan says Apple, Singtel-owned Optus and the Life360 app denied her requests for location data, telling her only authorised circle members or local authorities can request information. Australia has already deployed drone specialists, consular officers, police and defence personnel, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Canberra would share telecommunications data with Nepali authorities. Viswanathan has launched a petition urging more help and warned delays could be costly; the immediate question is whether tech firms will change course, or whether Australia’s data-sharing with Nepal will produce the phone signals families need.

What Happened

An Australian medical student says tech companies and a telco have blocked access to phone location traces that she believes could narrow the search for her missing partner after a glacier collapse on 26 August. She says those refusals are costing time and focus for families and rescuers.

Sarada Viswanathan, 23, has spent days in north‑west Sydney trying to reconstruct the last movements of her boyfriend, 23‑year‑old medical student Rishab Iyer, and his family, after they vanished near the Nepal‑Tibet border when a glacier collapse sent a torrent of water through the region. Apple’s Find My service and the Life360 app placed the family near their hotel about 30 minutes before the floods struck, and Viswanathan says the phones are likely dead now with no way for the Iyers to contact relatives.

The disaster on August 26 has killed more than 1,200 people and left over 4,200 missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals and 38 Australians. Viswanathan says she has asked Apple, Singtel‑owned Optus and Life360 for location information but was denied, and she has pressed tech firms for access to data.

She launched a petition urging the Australian government for more help, and relatives with Nepali phone numbers later obtained phone‑signal information through Nepali authorities, a development she said underlined how delays can be costly. "We are all just scrambling to try and put the pieces together ourselves," she said, as rescue teams continue searching.

The Context

Rescue teams are racing against time and very limited data, because crucial device-location records sit with private platforms and carriers rather than in the hands of search coordinators. That matters when a single coordinate can cut a search grid from kilometres to metres and speed rescue by hours.

On August 26 a glacier collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border unleashed a torrent that has killed more than 1,200 people and left over 4,200 missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals and 38 Australians. The scale has overwhelmed local capacity and complicated contact tracing for relatives overseas.

Sarada Viswanathan, 23, has spent days working from northwestern Sydney to reconstruct the last movements of her partner, 23-year-old medical student Rishab Iyer, and his family. Tracking services including Apple’s Find My and the Life360 app placed the family near their hotel about 30 minutes before the floods struck, and relatives say the phones then appear to have stopped transmitting. "We’re all just scrambling to try and put the pieces together ourselves," she said.

Viswanathan says she asked Apple, Singtel-owned Optus, and Life360 for the family’s location data to help narrow the search areas. But the companies refused or only shared data with authorised circle members or local authorities. They said privacy and security rules stopped them from sharing more. Relatives with local Nepali phone numbers later got limited phone-signal information through Nepali authorities. This shows how jurisdiction and paperwork decide who can access what.

Mastheads

Canberra has sent drone specialists, consular officers, police, and defence personnel to help in Nepal. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would share telecommunications data with Nepali authorities. The next step is to see if this cooperation produces usable, time-stamped device locations.

Reaction

Relatives and partners have ramped up pressure on both private firms and governments for phone location data that could narrow search zones, but the response so far has been a mix of refusals and procedural roadblocks. The demand is urgent; the offered answers have been bureaucratic and slow.

Sarada Viswanathan, 23, told reporters she asked Apple, Singtel-owned Optus and the Life360 app for location information about her partner Rishab Iyer and his family and was turned away, with companies either citing privacy and security rules or saying only authorised circle members or local authorities can make such requests. "We’re all just scrambling to try and put the pieces together ourselves," she said, and she warned delays could be costly.

Australia has already sent drone specialists, consular officers, police and defence personnel to assist search efforts, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would share telecommunications data with Nepali authorities to aid the operation. That represents a formal channel for getting mobile and network information into the hands of teams on the ground.

Viswanathan has also launched a petition urging the Australian government for more help and faster action. Relatives with local Nepali phone numbers later got phone-signal information through Nepali authorities.

What's Next

The immediate test is whether private tech firms or governments will hand over the location signals that could narrow where search teams look. Sarada Viswanathan has asked Apple, Singtel-owned Optus and the Life360 app for that data; those firms have so far declined, citing privacy and security or saying only authorised circle members or local authorities can make such requests.

Official and private routes being explored

  • Canberra has already sent drone specialists, consular officers, police and defence personnel to Nepal to assist the search effort. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would share telecommunications data with Nepali authorities, opening an official channel for any network records.
  • Relatives who have local Nepali phone numbers later managed to obtain phone-signal information through Nepali authorities, showing a practical route for families seeking trace data when providers will not disclose it directly to overseas next of kin.
  • The alternative is corporate cooperation. Apple’s Find My service and the Life360 app recorded the family’s last known position near their hotel about 30 minutes before the deluge, but the companies have declined to release raw location logs to Viswanathan.

What Viswanathan and others are doing now

Viswanathan has launched a public petition urging the Australian government to push harder for access to data and to speed assistance, warning that delays could be costly. She has said, "We’re all just scrambling to try and put the pieces together ourselves," and argued that phone records might reduce the search area for rescuers.

What to watch in the coming days

  • Whether Apple, Optus or Life360 change their position and provide records to Australian or Nepali authorities.
  • How quickly Canberra transfers any telecommunications data it receives to Nepali search teams, and whether that data can be processed into usable location vectors.
  • If more families use local authorities to obtain phone-signal information, and whether that yields the concentrated search coordinates rescuers need.

The crucial technical fact remains simple and stark: Apple’s Find My service and Life360 placed the Iyer family near their hotel about 30 minutes before the floods struck. Those last 30 minutes are the window everyone is trying to pin down.

Originally reported by Reuters.

By Aoife Murphy, Senior Correspondent, Clovers Report

Aoife Murphy is a Senior Correspondent at Clovers Report, where she covers international affairs, European policy, and the Irish financial landscape. Based in Dublin, her reporting spans Central Bank of Ireland decisions, ISEQ market movements, EU regulatory developments, and the diplomatic relationships that shape Ireland's role in both European and transatlantic affairs.

Aoife began her career at a regional newspaper in Cork, covering county council politics and District Court proceedings before joining a Dublin-based financial news service in 2014. She spent five years on the business desk reporting on Irish banking recovery, FDI announcements, and the economic implications of Ireland's role as a European headquarters for major US multinationals. She joined Clovers Report to help build a newsroom that could make complex European and financial stories accessible for Irish readers.

She has reported from EU Council meetings in Brussels, covered IMF Article IV consultations on Ireland, and interviewed policymakers involved in OECD tax framework negotiations that directly affect Ireland's corporate tax model. Her reporting on the 2023 Irish housing supply crisis was cited by Oireachtas committee discussions.

Aoife holds a degree in European Studies from Trinity College Dublin. Outside the newsroom, she follows Munster Rugby with an intensity she describes as 'healthy' and her colleagues describe as 'concerning.'

World Affairs · Irish & EU Politics · Financial Markets

This article was created with AI assistance.