— by Abhisek Pattnaik <[email protected]>
Many people use True Caller without actually realizing the privacy concerns deeply associated with the service.
How True Caller works is by sharing or uploading all your contact information to their servers and if a person has opted for their service by installing the app, it shares the stored details with the person.
Did True Caller ask permission of the person whose phone number they've stored?
No. A BIG FAT NO!!!
And that's the real concern of privacy. Your phone number and other details related to you that anyone has stored (associated with the phone number) are with the True Caller. They're free to use (or READ: misuse) the data by selling (unofficially) to any other third-party companies (via "unofficial" channels). And what if their server (or database to be exact) gets hijacked? Are the phone numbers and other details stored encrypted?
On-demand basis - means when you make a call to someone with True Caller installed, they know exactly who you are (or who you are NOT). The associated data stored by someone with your phone number doesn't necessarily always is your real data. Often people store your info by the way how they can relate to you. Many times, that means your nick name is shown to your potential employer or your boss or maybe someone has stored one of your not-to-be-shared information associated with you in their contacts and that becomes available to everyone else via True Caller. The nickname might be funny sometimes. But not everyone associated your number with a funny sounding nick.
Imagine a person - not so friendly, stored your name as "Dev - The Loan Shark" or "John - Neighbourhood Gangsta" They've True Caller installed and all their contacts along with their associated info is available on the web for others to see and use.
Do you want others to see all your history or how you associate to someone? Is this OK for you? It's a real concern and it's your advantage that you know about it.
Now its high time to make a halt to the spread of such services and help spread the message to your friends, enemies and your loved ones.
Have you tried searching for your number yet? If not, search your number at https://www.truecaller.com/
To unlist your phone number now, visit https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting