How does true caller work?

I was pretty much intrigued when I first saw this app. I can block the numbers I don't want to get called from. Very few unknown number calls.
So what I did was check the FAQ pages of TrueCaller website. They've mentioned there that they get their data through partnerships from stuff like yellow pages in India. With an aim to become 'the ultimate global phonebook' 👀, they have created a huge database (also contributed by its users). So, yes their data is crowd-sourced they say.
I think it is crazy! They ask users to upload their contacts from phonebook into their database, which is in turn searched to reveal identification.

And apparently, India is one of their largest market! 😨 [1.6 Million Indian Users and growing]

There was a huge report on Economic Times where privacy concerns were raised when phone number of Cabinet Ministers - P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal also celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar, SRK and industriaslists Ambani & Mittal - where found on the database of this Swedish app maker. I am wondering how telemarketers must've benefited from this app.

Mobile phone numbers are surely not the first thing you want to be publicly accessible. It is risking the privacy of uninformed users.

I just checked their website. I feel its a breach to privacy 😡
I tried searching a few numbers in my contacts including my own. It clearly showed my name 😲 (the way it was saved in my friend's or friends' contact list(s)). Eighty percent of the numbers I searched showed the name of the person it belonged to. The rest are lucky for the time being! hmm..!

It looks like they scan and upload the entire phonebook to their servers. So if you install their app, it will make a note of all your contacts and upload them to the server. But that's just my guess, otherwise they have no way to know which number belongs to whom. They seem to have built a big library of number. I'm quite sure this is a breach of privacy. They also seem to connect to the Facebook and LinkedIn and scan the contact information there.

I'm still looking to know how these folks collect information. I'm not installing the app anyway - but I'm quite sure my phone number is with them. Welcome to the connected world, folks. You've been uploading all your information on Facebook and Google and now they own your privacy! Enjoy!

Its not necessary to Install the app to search a number. I came to know about this app just now. There is a search option in their website 👎

I think it works exactly the same way you mentioned biggie. Because my name appeared in the search result as saved in my friend's contacts list. And many other names were just 'nicks' not the official full ones. May be we should save our own number in the contacts list by a fake name and then install the app to confuse it 😒

uh! The developers are pretty sure no one reads the loooong usage terms and conditions, license and privacy policies before installing anything. "I accept your terms and conditions" is all we read.

The_Big_KIt looks like they scan and upload the entire phonebook to their servers. So if you install their app, it will make a note of all your contacts and upload them to the server. But that's just my guess, otherwise they have no way to know which number belongs to whom. They seem to have built a big library of number. I'm quite sure this is a breach of privacy. They also seem to connect to the Facebook and LinkedIn and scan the contact information there.

I'm still looking to know how these folks collect information. I'm not installing the app anyway - but I'm quite sure my phone number is with them. Welcome to the connected world, folks. You've been uploading all your information on Facebook and Google and now they own your privacy! Enjoy!

Yes technically too it is possible, an app can access any user's contact
Recently when I was working coordova (framework for Mobile Apps Development) there is an api they provide through which you can access any user's contact number and save it into your location

Nice didn't think about this,

i think it is one of the possible reason that it gets the data about the user from the facebook because when i tried to search the number of the peoples having no facebook account, the replay came up with no data base found 👎 , and when i tried to search for the people having facebook account it came up with the name of the user of that number,may be because truecaller asks for connecting with there facebook page for user database access, twitter, linkedin etc..😨
i am not saying that this is the only way or it is the correct way how truecaller works am just sharing you my experience with truecaller if you won't believe check out by yourself. 👍

There's enough personal data shared by people on various social networking websites like Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter. This data can be used by the companies to make your information available anywhere. TrueCaller may have access to this data that they use to identify phone numbers correctly.

I hope this doesn't cause any security breaches.

I just found a video that describes how TrueCaller works. Check it out -


In short, people basically upload their phonebook to TrueCaller's servers which contains names, phone numbers and other details. Once the information is uploaded, TrueCaller knows which number corresponds to what name. Each person who installs the app uploads the phonebook and the overall database at TrueCaller keeps on growing. So even if you shared your phone number with only one of your friends who is a TrueCaller user, your number has been shared with TrueCaller and if you call any other TrueCaller user, you won't be anonymous.

It's a very simple concept that's executed very well. I have big concerns over the privacy breach this causes because your friends and relatives are sharing your phone number - something which you just cannot control.

What do you think about TrueCaller's technology and modus operendi?

The_Big_KI just found a video that describes how TrueCaller works. Check it out -


In short, people basically upload their phonebook to TrueCaller's servers which contains names, phone numbers and other details. Once the information is uploaded, TrueCaller knows which number corresponds to what name. Each person who installs the app uploads the phonebook and the overall database at TrueCaller keeps on growing. So even if you shared your phone number with only one of your friends who is a TrueCaller user, your number has been shared with TrueCaller and if you call any other TrueCaller user, you won't be anonymous.

It's a very simple concept that's executed very well. I have big concerns over the privacy breach this causes because your friends and relatives are sharing your phone number - something which you just cannot control.

What do you think about TrueCaller's technology and modus operendi?

Hi,

Truecaller is based on an opt-in crowdsourced solution where our users can opt-in (only name and numbers) and at any time also opt out their information. It is always disabled by default. Also, anyone can at any time permanently unlist their phone number from our website.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Alan Mamedi
Co-founder and CEO @ Truecaller

Good to have you with us, Alan. Good to know that TrueCaller allows opting out of the service. I'll leave this thread open for further questions.

That was really helpful. I unlisted my number.

Hi #-Link-Snipped-#,

Pls tell me how you unlisted your number from true caller database ?

Maybe someone should write step by step instructions to unlist your number from TrueCaller.

Unlisting a number from true caller

• Goto #-Link-Snipped-#
• Choose your country and enter the phone number in the relevant fields
• Type the captcha
• Press "Unlist" (A blue icon looking like an e-mail)

Then they say the number was unlisted permanently and it takes 24 hours for the changes to happen.

The unlist option seems cool and secure but it can unlist any number. Its not like any specific that it will unlist only your number.

That doesn't matter. They don't ask the permission of owner of the number before adding it to their database. So being able to remove any number by any person is justified. No one needs to prove a certain number is owned by that specific person for it to be unlisted as far as the true caller staff doesn't ask the person's permission to list his number!!!

Besides, who will want to advertise own privacy.

I am so frustrated with this crap app showing my fb dp everytime I change it . I never linked any thing with this app.
My question to the ceo of this app what kind of app you have created?? Breach of privacy. M sure this app will be banned in india its just the govt. Who needs to know this breach? Your concept of stealing contact list is not at all welcomed in india..

Alan MHi,

Truecaller is based on an opt-in crowdsourced solution where our users can opt-in (only name and numbers) and at any time also opt out their information. It is always disabled by default. Also, anyone can at any time permanently unlist their phone number from our website.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Alan Mamedi
Co-founder and CEO @ Truecaller

This is not going well with me as anyone can unlist any number from web site.just to try i unlisted some 4 5 numbers.i didn't know the number also,i tried some imaginery numbers and got message that this number is unlisted.

Hi
This is an awesome app. and i appreciate those who developed it.

But still there is a bad part of it. every people is not aware of unlist the mobile no from your site . and people who has uploaded there names may not have taken permission to upload there no and disclose there personal information. so there should be some other step for adding there name to list like send confirmation SMS to the number which is going to list in your database.

it will be more dangerous tool if some people... bad people want to misuse it. so if any body want to upload any number to your server using your tool. the tool must send confirmation SMS on your cost or person who upload number and app should wait untill they get +ve reply from them.

So if a person unlists his/her number , tat particular number will not be in truecaller database at tat moment. But if any other friend installs this app in his/her mobile, again it will read the mobile contacts and the unlisted number will again be in truecaller database. Is tat So!!!!

And moreover many of friends will be using this app and they might have saved my number with different names. So my doubt is on wat basis this app is selecting and displaying the names. (for ex. let me consider that the number is saved as "xxxx sweet" in one mobile and "abc" in another mobile and both will be uploaded in the database as both mobile owners installed truecaller app, Now on searching the number from some other mobile what name will be displayed and on wat basis.!!!

#-Link-Snipped-# I think it will be any of those two names OR whichever is used on most phone numbers.

PS: Just to point it out, this discussion has attracted over 47,000 views!

When you unlist your number, that is forever! Or at least, that is what they say.

Hi everyone,

Glad to see that this thread is still alive. To follow up on some of your questions.

1. If you download Truecaller from "Google Play" or "iPhone app store", we DON´T crowd source the information to make it publicly searchable. This is against their policies.


2. So where is the data coming from? Crawling the web, users tagging information, users reporting numbers as spam in the app, users opting in to crowd source on other platforms than Google Play and iPhone App store.

3. If you unlist a number no matter if it´s in our directory or not, it will be unlisted forever. Period.

I am trying to unlist my number, but not happening.
I am typing the correct CAPTCHA, but again not working.
I doubt is its a spam.

The folks over at NDTV Profit came up with a show called 'Contrarian' featuring Mr. Alan Mamedi, CEO TrueCaller talking about inception of the company, the reasons for its success, and its plans for the future.

The program became live on YouTube just a day back. Check -

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Hi I read this entire thread and got lot of knowledge. I went to their website which says us to login using google, facebook or yahoo account and asks the permission to share the profile info there and if you deny , you can not sign in and see even search results. adding or un listing the number is apart. I was searching for my own number, and did not let me see search result without sharing my account data with truecaller.
That is bad

Saurabh Bana
New Delhi
India

#-Link-Snipped-# - People opening up their contact book is what TrueCaller wants. If you don't give them your contact list; they won't give you theirs. It's plain give and take. Makes sense for the business they are in. If people simply share contacts but not their phone numbers, TrueCaller won't be able to make accurate predictions about who's calling.

I am thinking how awesome it would be to have Alan Mamedi ( #-Link-Snipped-# ) featured on CrazyEngineers' Founders Circuit interview. Will definitely get in touch with him.

Hi,
I read entire conversation and I got lot's of information.
Thanks sir for such wonderful application.

[USER=55149]@jit[/USER]Hi,
I read entire conversation and I got lot's of information.
Thanks sir for such wonderful application.

That's simply great. It feels good when someone appreciates the content they read on the site. I am initiating another topic for : How to unlist your number from TrueCaller. Will update this discussion with a link to that.

Update: <a href="https://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/how-to-unlist-or-remove-my-number-from-truecaller-database-tutorial.85720">How to unlist or remove my number from TrueCaller database? [Tutorial]</a>

Truecaller collect data through the partnerships with different white/yellow pages throughout the world and through crowdsourced information from our Truecaller community.Please note that phonebook contribution has been and always will be optional. Only phone numbers and names are used and all data is transferred and kept by Truecaller using secure methods. Users on the Android & iPhone platform downloaded from Google Play or App Store are not be able to contribute to this database, but will nevertheless experience the same level of service as if they had.