Hardeep Singh
Truecaller, caller identification and spam filtering software business that is planning to list on the Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange in the near future is concerned that India’s personal data privacy bill would jeopardise the company’s profitability.
Truecaller’s origins may be traced back to the days of phone books and yellow pages. Anyone with access to the base phone may look up a contact in the phone book and dial their number. Phonebooks, often known as white or yellow pages, were used to record all essential contacts and information. However, the smartphone age arrived sooner or later, and everything altered significantly. When the basic phone became obsolete, so did the concept of a phone book directory. Finding people’s contact information was no longer a luxury. The problems didn’t stop there; they became much worse as privacy concerns such as spam and bogus phone calls became out of hand.
Truecaller is a smartphone app that can also be used online to find anybody in the world by name or phone number. Because it recognises your social networks and lets you find someone’s connection even if you don’t know his last name. It will keep track of your profile on its network, which is only linked to your phone number, and will encourage people to join the Truecaller network. Unwanted call screening, spam calls, a shared connection, and a huge contact database are among the software’s most prominent features and capabilities.
Truecaller is the success story of a software business that has simplified our modern lives. The mobile revolution changed people’s lives, but it also brought forth new issues, such as identifying unfamiliar mobile numbers, spam calls, unwanted calls, and privacy/security concerns. The application was created in 2009 by two engineering students in Stockholm, Sweden. Nami Zarringhalam and Alan Mamedi developed an app to aid them in establishing who was calling them. Truecaller, which would go on to become one of the world’s most well-known communication apps, spread like wildfire through word of mouth throughout India’s many cultural landscapes.Nami Zarringhalam and Alan Namedi were students in the class of 2006 at the Royal Institutes of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. They were both passionate about mobile technology and hoped to have a better grasp of the device. They built a global online directory as part of a research project. Initially, they utilised this online directory to search up the phone numbers of all missed calls, which were almost certainly from family and friends. They were able to obtain data from the national phone directory in order to build the app’s database. It all started on a small scale at first. This covers Truecaller’s history prior to the App Store, Play Store, and other comparable platforms.
In 2012, Truecaller was a small company with approximately 15 people working out of a modest office in the heart of Stockholm. Truecaller had over 8 million users in the Middle East and India at the time, all thanks to word-of-mouth. The founders were aware that Truecaller was changing the way people interacted and confirming their right to know who was calling them, despite the fact that none of them had visited India or other countries where their product was gaining momentum. At the time, they hired a first Indian employee, began talking with Indian investors, and set out to become one of India’s most popular apps.
Truecaller’s journey has been gratifying as well as humbling. Countless numbers, spanning from a Stockholm apartment to corporations all across the world, have been identified. India has become our home, despite the fact that the two started in Sweden. Truecaller’s journey has been gratifying as well as humbling. Countless numbers, spanning from a Stockholm apartment to corporations all across the world, have been identified. India has become home, despite the fact that the founders started in Sweden.
A law to protect personal data in India was not approved by the Indian parliament. Any information that may be used to identify a person, such as names, addresses, financial information, IP addresses, cookies, device IDs, and other information, is covered under the Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019.
Companies must give notification and get prior consent before using personal data for purposes different than those for which it was previously used, according to the bill. These limitations are in place to ensure that just the information required is obtained. Personal data of Indian people will be protected and will not be held outside of India, according to the Indian government.
The Indian parliament failed to adopt a bill to protect personal information. The Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019 protects any information that might be used to identify a person, including names, addresses, financial information, IP addresses, cookies, device IDs, and other data.
Before personal data may be used, it must be notified and consented to, and the purposes for which it can be used are limited. These limitations are in place to ensure that only the information that is required gets accessed. The Indian government’s objective is to ensure that the personal data of Indian citizens are protected and not stored outside of the country.
If passed, the bill, which is based on the GDPR [European Union General Data Protection Regulations], will provide a framework for personal data protection as well as a national data protection agency. If passed, and depending on how it is implemented, this rule might have unintended negative consequences for Truecaller.
The filmmakers aimed to create a film that would educate clients about their trip, emphasise the difficulties, and explain the Truecaller idea. The video begins in the beginning when Truecaller was simply a notion in the minds of two young and passionate engineers. It also transports us to the most remote corners of the planet. They met at a Swedish university and became fast friends because of Nami’s Qtek smartphone. Truecaller was originally mentioned on an internet forum in 2009 and has gained in popularity since then. Truecaller, which was started 12 years ago, today boasts over 280 million users worldwide. The creators recount their remarkable storey in the film.
Truecaller is the most popular platform for validating contacts and preventing telemarketing calls. The initiative makes it easier for companies to engage with customers by encouraging individuals to form safe and productive interactions. In the digital economy, fraud and unwanted contact are prevalent, especially in poor nations. They are working hard to enhance communication and build trust. Truecaller is a vital component of 280 million active users’ daily communication, with half a billion downloads and 30 billion nuisance calls detected and banned since its start. The firm has a wealth of experience as a co-founder-driven, entrepreneurial organisation and it would be interesting to see what new ventures does it plans after going public.
