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TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

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Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#101

Post by Kiro »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #73
inglor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife installed TrueCaller on her phone. She is technical but not a developer. I asked if she knows they steal your contact list and spy on you and her answer was “so? It’s just phone numbers and names and they need to get the data somewhere as they are providing the service for free” I live in a developed country and we have a high standard of living. Giving this anecdote to illustrate many people genuinely don’t…

Not that someone cares, but in the EU she would be responsible for violating the GDPR. Many people don't know that they are responsible as private citizens.

Only true if she violates a national law. GDPR itself does not apply to private citizens.

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#102

Post by Kiro »

_jal wrote: post #82
jabroni_salad wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of that comes from the fact that phone numbers being private at all is not a universal consideration. My town still, every year, sends me a paper book full of every resident's address and landline telephone.

And here's where how something is used makes all the difference. I have zero issues with my neighbors having my phone number. If I lived in a smallish place, extending that would be fine. I have huge issues with spammers and con artists having it. A locally distributed physical book works great for the first and, at the very least, makes the second work for it. Online databases are basically made to order for the sec…

In my country the same physical book has been available online for decades.

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#103

Post by superasn »

Melatonic wrote: post #83
superasn wrote: post #32

The best way to run truecaller is to install this app called 'Island'. This creates a new profile called work profile for you. Use a new google id for this work profile. Then install true caller inside island. I rarely use it but all I have to do is turn on the work profile, look up a number and then turn it back off. I keep all crap apps in the work profile since there is a shortcut in the android drawer to turn it…

Do you know if this works if I already have a legit work profile setup on my phone? Do you need to give Island administrator privileges on the device?

If you already have a work profile then Island will want to delete it first so I guess this won't work sorry

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#104

Post by zakember »

fareesh wrote: post #4

When you install the app they steal your contact list and populate their database that way. Most people are unaware of this, or don't care since we are a third world country and privacy is seen as a first world problem. The vast majority of thinking here is not very sophisticated about these types of topics. Only a very tiny fraction of the total population is averse to sharing personal information like phone numbers…

In case you haven't yet done it already, you can ask TrueCaller to unlist your phone number from their System: https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#105

Post by jamal-kumar »

fareesh wrote: post #4

When you install the app they steal your contact list and populate their database that way. Most people are unaware of this, or don't care since we are a third world country and privacy is seen as a first world problem. The vast majority of thinking here is not very sophisticated about these types of topics. Only a very tiny fraction of the total population is averse to sharing personal information like phone numbers…

I have two phones, one with a cell phone chip from a third world country, and one which is not.

Guess which one gets all the apps - It's definitely not the one that costs me over 100$/mo to maintain!

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#106

Post by adolph »

inglor wrote: post #10
fareesh wrote: post #4

When you install the app they steal your contact list and populate their database that way. Most people are unaware of this, or don't care since we are a third world country and privacy is seen as a first world problem. The vast majority of thinking here is not very sophisticated about these types of topics. Only a very tiny fraction of the total population is averse to sharing personal information like phone numbers…

My wife installed TrueCaller on her phone. She is technical but not a developer. I asked if she knows they steal your contact list and spy on you and her answer was “so? It’s just phone numbers and names and they need to get the data somewhere as they are providing the service for free” I live in a developed country and we have a high standard of living. Giving this anecdote to illustrate many people genuinely don’t…

It used to be that the phone company would annually throw a book on your porch with everyone in your town's name, phone and address. I can see how someone with that as a mental model for contact lists wouldn't see a problem.

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#107

Post by LinAGKar »

yashg wrote: post #44

I find TrueCaller immensely useful. Especially to filter out and block spam callers. Spam calls and robocalls are a HUGE problem in India. TrueCaller flashes spam callers in red, you can reject the call and save a few precious minutes of your life. About half of the calls I receive a day are spam calls. If I were to answer them all and then reject it would be a waste of time and energy.

I used to use Truecaller, and it is useful, but it got gradually more and more obnoxious over the years, until eventually it would nag you about paid subscriptions whenever you opened the app, and throw up fullscreen ads whenever you received a phone call. So at that point I uninstalled it.

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#108

Post by rsync »

mikeyouse wrote: post #27

An interesting side effect of these types of companies popped up during the Navalny team's investigation of Putin's alleged yacht in Italy. They got the ship's crew manifest and then used a database like TrueCaller to check it out. The manifest had the crewmember's name and a phone number - so when you look up the number associated with 'Alexander Pechurkin', other people have him listed as "Sanya FSB" "Alexander FSO…

Anyone can do this.

Ekata reverse phone is a plugin inside the twilio plugins directory (or whatever they are calling it this week).

I wrote a unix command named 'lookup' which takes a single argument (phone number) and spits out "associated people" in a nice yaml output:

            "is_commercial": false,
            "associated_people": [
              {
                "name": "Ms. Amanda Joy Lastname",
                "firstname": "Amanda",
                "middlename": "Joy",
                "lastname": "Lastname",
                "relation": "Household",
                "id": "Person.02884d55-980e-450c-a1e2-99999999999b"
              },
I haven't checked but I'll bet I could get API service (for a fee) from Ekata and query these person IDs they are using and then fill out a whole social graph.

It's a neat trick but other than confirming mobile=true and carrier:

    "carrier": {
      "mobile_country_code": "311",
      "mobile_network_code": "489",
      "name": "Verizon Wireless",
      "type": "mobile",
      "error_code": null

 ... I haven't found much use for it.

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#109

Post by lotsofpulp »

signal11 wrote: post #96
websap wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India has a huge problem with spam / robo callers. Also its common for individuals to have more than 1 phone number, see how popular dual sim phones are. Also true caller adds security when you're from an under represented or a minority groups. I especially know women who use Truecaller to make sure they know who is calling / texting them from new numbers.

> see how popular dual sim phones are Having multiple SIMs in India will go away, or at least become something only the rich have, it's only a matter of time. This is because having that second SIM is no longer cost-free. Multiple SIMs in India were a side-effect of it being near-free to have a prepaid SIM to receive calls. This was subsidized by high calling charges (calling from one part of India to another was exp…

Coincidentally, the US is also down to 3 mobile networks.

I wonder what the percentiles is for number of networks in populous and large countries. Perhaps 3 networks is the number of maximum economically viable long term networks due to the enormously high cost of installing all the fiber and cell station infrastructure across the country.

Re: TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India

#110

Post by amitport »

nathancahill wrote: post #99
techsupporter wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you sign up for a new account, they aggressively prompt you to sync your contacts list with the app, and will continually prompt you in the future if you choose not to. Even everyone's much-loved Signal does this. Contacts sync is presented as "not now" or "yes forever." The "not now" message even explicitly says they'll bug you again.

Signal is worse, because when you sign up with a phone number, everyone that has your number in their address book gets a notification from Signal that you signed up.

They claim it is done without revealing these contact to signal.

Assuming they are telling the truth, why would you care that your contacts know you also use signal (like them)?

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