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Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

privacyinternational.org

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Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#151

Post by blackbrokkoli »

RikNieu wrote: post #23

I find TrueCaller very usefull. I used to get sooo many sales and robo-calls a day that I seriously considered just getting rid of my phone. Now they get automatically blocked or I can just put them on a profile that they ring silently and hang up immediately. I get that this can be dangerous for journalists, but shouldn't they maybe investigate alternative ways of contacting sources privately? Mobile numbers are not…

Can somebody enlighten me why robo-calls are such a problem in the US? I'm completely ignorant of any relevant legislation or enforcement, but as a young German I can literally remember exactly two unsolicited survey calls in my whole life, both on a landline.

This suggests some fundamental difference compared to the US which maybe should be changed instead of a third party band-aid app with lots of problems, but again I don't know this difference and thus will refrain from judging...

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#152

Post by bscphil »

enitihas wrote: post #103
abtom wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a non-user and do not wish your information to appear on the app, you can unlist your number here - https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting Though I do not agree with the method where as a non-user I need to manually opt-out of the service, it does seem to work. My number is no longer visible on the app.

I tried using the unlisting UI, but it says I need to install the app and deactivate my account before unlisting. When I install the app, it refuses to run unless I grant it all sorts of permissions. So it seems before unlisting, I need to give truecaller my data. This absolutely ridiculous.

It said that for me too, and I've never had an account. I kept trying and it somehow worked on the fourth try. The format I used was "+1xxxxxxxxxx" for the number, not sure if that made any difference.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#156

Post by ktpsns »

blackbrokkoli wrote: post #151
RikNieu wrote: post #23

I find TrueCaller very usefull. I used to get sooo many sales and robo-calls a day that I seriously considered just getting rid of my phone. Now they get automatically blocked or I can just put them on a profile that they ring silently and hang up immediately. I get that this can be dangerous for journalists, but shouldn't they maybe investigate alternative ways of contacting sources privately? Mobile numbers are not…

Can somebody enlighten me why robo-calls are such a problem in the US? I'm completely ignorant of any relevant legislation or enforcement, but as a young German I can literally remember exactly two unsolicited survey calls in my whole life, both on a landline. This suggests some fundamental difference compared to the US which maybe should be changed instead of a third party band-aid app with lots of problems, but aga…

Can confirm, being also a (not-that-young-anymore) German. Scam calls or phone marketing is very seldom here. I always assumed this is due to strict laws in Germany.

Another thing is also that most people I know no more publish their telephone number in a (public) phone book, as it used to be still common 30 years ago. That's something where you easily can grab tons of private information from. How common are phone books in the US?

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#157

Post by PeterisP »

iliketosleep wrote: post #8

This reminds me once again that the weakest link in the privacy chain today is the mobile phone number, especially since governments in many countries have forced people to link their number to a real ID. It's essentially become a ID number by proxy. However, in the case of the article, the reporter should know to inform her sources not to enter _any_ information linking to her real-world identity into their electron…

In the case of this article, the reporter should keep separate "digital identities" for people whom she want's to know her affiliation and those who don't. The main mistake there was that she used her "burner number" for ordering a taxi, when it should have been used just for these contacts.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#158

Post by Machado117 »

llamataboot wrote: post #27

I regularly get calls on my iphone now that say (maybe: Jane Doe) under the name, and they are usually correct. Often they are recruiters, or lawyers, or people that I imagine have their phone number publicized on the web. But I'm not sure I've read where apple is getting this info (or perhaps it is a carrier thing?)

Same thing happens to me. It's from emails you received that have phone numbers in the content.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#159

Post by rapind »

blackbrokkoli wrote: post #151
RikNieu wrote: post #23

I find TrueCaller very usefull. I used to get sooo many sales and robo-calls a day that I seriously considered just getting rid of my phone. Now they get automatically blocked or I can just put them on a profile that they ring silently and hang up immediately. I get that this can be dangerous for journalists, but shouldn't they maybe investigate alternative ways of contacting sources privately? Mobile numbers are not…

Can somebody enlighten me why robo-calls are such a problem in the US? I'm completely ignorant of any relevant legislation or enforcement, but as a young German I can literally remember exactly two unsolicited survey calls in my whole life, both on a landline. This suggests some fundamental difference compared to the US which maybe should be changed instead of a third party band-aid app with lots of problems, but aga…

For a somewhat amusing (if roundabout) investigation jumping off point into the robocalls problem: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/awhk76

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#160

Post by wycy »

mherdeg wrote: post #18
iliketosleep wrote: post #8

This reminds me once again that the weakest link in the privacy chain today is the mobile phone number, especially since governments in many countries have forced people to link their number to a real ID. It's essentially become a ID number by proxy. However, in the case of the article, the reporter should know to inform her sources not to enter _any_ information linking to her real-world identity into their electron…

I got a free loaner phone once a few years back ("Samsung Ultimate Test Drive") which came with pre-activated mobile phone service and was very clearly re-using a phone number that someone else had quite recently actively been using. While it was weird to get SMSes about SoCal drug deals, the strangest thing of all with that phone was opening the Lyft app and being automatically signed in to someone else's Lyft accou…

Is this because Samsung simply sent you a phone that hadn't been wiped and was still signed into all these accounts, or was it really just auto-signed in due to phone number? I did the Samsung Ultimate Test Drive as well and don't recall being auto-signed into anything (though I also got many SMSes and calls intended for the previous owner).
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