Saturday, April 20, 2013

(UN)TRUE-CALLER

(UN)TRUE-CALLER

One fine day I saw an application in my friend’s mobile I asked “what’s that?” She said “this application is known as Truecaller”. Truecaller!!! I got surprised what is this app is all about, I also downloaded this app in my blackberry handset. After downloading and running this app I discovered that we can check which number belongs to whom and there is also a facility to block a number from calling us. Suddenly my mobile rang, I had a call from an unknown number but this app identified this number for me and it displayed whose number was it. A bit strange but quite interesting!

I was wondering for days together, how this app works? After a lot of thought process and some internet search I found out that it just sucks the whole phone book data of every Truecaller app user’s phone. This phone directory is then uploaded on the server of Truecaller. So, whenever any anonymous number calls you will be able to view the name of that person.

Eg: Suppose we are a group of three people. I (Navjeet) am the first one to install this app and I have the phone numbers of the other two members (Dolly-College & Prince-Office) fed in my contact book (in the manner specifies in the earlier brackets). Then the second person installs this app and does not have the third person’s number in his phone-book  When the second person will dial the third person’s number, truecaller will display it as the name whatever is fed in my phone-book (Prince-Office).




I wonder how many people have been using this application and losing all their personal contact database. Well on a serious note Truecaller is very dangerous app, because all the data of your mobile is easily accessible by the app makers, that could even include your saved passwords, emails, etc.

So, whenever you exchange your contact number with only one of your friends who is a True Caller user, your number has been shared with True Caller, a so called GLOBAL DIRECTORY and if you call any other True Caller user, you won't be anonymous anymore.

In spite of so many negative features, this app does have some good points to catch on as well.
This site gives the user an option to opt-out from the site’s database. This means that particular user’s name and number won’t be available on the app to search for.

Also this app, helps us to decide whether to attend a call from an anonymous number or not as it displays who is calling us. Moreover it also helps us to block unwanted callers.

The application website though states that their date is crowd-sourced. That is, they have partnerships with companies like Yellow Pages (India) and also some data is contributed by the users themselves.

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






This blog is part of IT assignment given by Prof. Arun Kumar V Waghchoure, as mention on website www.tigriinnovations.com My Name: [Navjeet Kaur Bons], Roll No.: [115], Batch: [Aug 2012]