How true Truecaller really is
Intro
Truecaller is a Swedish company offering a collaborative global phone directory. Truecaller provides a collaborative phone directory which is done by crowdsourcing and has a high data integrity.Since truecaller is free have you ever wondered how does this big company earn its money and how true true really is it.Lets discuss about this in detail in this article.
About
Truecaller is a call-blocking app. It was originally developed by the Swedish company True Software Scandinavia AB , a privately held company in Stockholm, Sweden founded by Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam in 2009. The app is available for Android,iOS,BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Phone . It was initially launched by BlackBerry on 1 July 2009. After good response it was launched for Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile. It was released for Android and Apple iPhone on 23 September 2009 and for Windows Phone on 1 March 2012. By quarter 3 of 2012 the company managed to build a database of five million usersperforming about 120 million telephone searches.By 2017 the number of users went as high as 250 million users.
How does the app works
Basically what the app does is it collects all the contacts from the users who are using the truecaller app and stores it in its server.Then it applies its AI and machine learning technology and picks a number and checks all the names with which the number is stored in the contacts and then takes a common name out and finally maps that name to that number.
So when someone calls on that number then the mapped name is fetched from the server and shown to you in the truecaller app.
To round up what the app does is take the data from us and in turn show the data to us.This is the same thing like I take all the information about your house from you and in turn telling you that whenever you need any data about anyone just take it from me because I have taken the data from each and every house Lol.
How it earns money
#1.Advertisements
Advertisements are a great way of earning huge revenues and you also might have experienced some kinds of Advertisements on the app in the form of popups and banners.Companies pay a huge amount to show their ads on the app as the app has a large database and the ads target a whole lot of customers thus making a huge revenue.
This is a piece of advertisement on truecaller app
#2.Truecaller Business
Truecaller business is another business idea of truecaller.In this a company which has many phone numbers pays truecaller a huge amount to reduce te spam rate on all the numbers of that comapny so that when they call someone their number doesn't get listed on the spam directory.
#3.Data Sharing
This is the method which makes the maximum earning for truecaller.In this era rupees or dollar is not that worth as your data is.What they do is they sellout the data to their third party websites and partners which makes efficent use of it show ads to you which are specific to you as the app has all your data(to be discussed later in the article).What those advertisers get is all your data including your location ,profession(tag system to be discussed later) and many more.
So Basically what it does is sell our private data and earn huge profits.
#4.Selling out phone numbers
Since the app has a biggest phone directory in the world so you can get almost anyone's number by paying them a huge amount.Like you can get any celebirity's number as they might be using truecaller or some of their contacts are using it.Through it they can get their number and can eventually charge a lot for their numbers and sell them to you.
The end result is that the truecaller sells our data legally as we gave them the permission in terms and conditions while signing up to the app.
Privacy issues in Truecaller
If you are a Truecaller user, you might have a thing or two to worry about. Personal data of millions of Truecaller users, including Indians, was been leaked online and was available on sale on dark web, a part of the internet that is notorious for sale of illegal goods and information among other things.However the company denied this allegation and told it was a hoax and not to pay attention to it.
The other privacy issues with this app is the thing which you accept while signing into the app yeah the terms and conditions page.Just have a glance at this section of the terms and conditions present at the website of truecaller.
If you have read it carefully you would have come to know that the truecaller app takes access of all our data like geo-location; Your IP address; device ID or unique identifier; device manufacturer and type; device and hardware settings; SIM card usage; applications installed on your device; ID for advertising; ad data, operating system; web browser; operator; IMSI; connection information; screen resolution; usage statistics; default communication applications; access to device address book; device log and event information; logs, keywords and meta data of incoming and outgoing calls and messages; version of the Services You use and other information based on Your interaction with our Services such as how the Services are being accessed (via another service, web site or a search engine).These data are enough for someone to keep a watch on us and al our private data.
They also say claim that they sell your data to third parties advertisers and agencies which is also a privacy risk to you as they can do almost anything with your data.
Recently many truecaller users reported that their bank automatically sends a request for services of UPI without the knowledge of the user.This is absolutely disqusting and not expected from this company.
We may blame google and facebook for stealing our data but what about this who steals all your data and sells it to other countries.Why no one talks about this.
What is the solution
The app no doubt is extremely useful but privacy is most important so what is the solution that we use the app without risking the privacy.
Here is my tip on how to use truecaller without risking the privacy.
Just create a fresh email id and start using truecaller website.When the website asks to login use that email id and dont use that email id anywhere else.In this way you can use truecaller services without giving any data.
Hope this helps:)
