Is Truecaller A Spy App? Is It A Chinese Company?

Truecaller is a very helpful app to fight against spam as it alerts you about incoming spam calls before you even attend them. Recently the Truecaller app was in news for all bad reasons when the Indian army ordered its soldiers to uninstall the Truecaller app for being potential malware.

But is Truecaller really spyware or is it safe to use? Keep reading the article and we will find out if Truecaller is a spy app or not. So without wasting any time let’s get started.

Table Of Contents

• Why Truecaller Is Suspected Of Being A Spyware?
• Is Truecaller A Spy App?
• What Permissions Does Truecaller Require?
• How To Manage Your Permissions On Truecaller App?
• Is Truecaller Safe To Use? Final Verdict
• FAQs

Why Truecaller Is Suspected Of Being A Spyware?

According to the Indian army, Truecaller sneak peeks into one’s contact list which kinds of make it dangerous and poses a security risk. Also, it is believed that Truecaller is a Chinese app just like TikTok that can steal user information and do cyber attacks in any country.

Moreover, if you give permissions to Truecaller and make it your default dialer and messaging app then it can see your call logs and read your messages which makes it even more dangerous.

Also, Truecaller has an availability feature that tells when a person is on a call or when they were last seen on the app. Although it’s a good feature, it is also a privacy breach as people will know when you are talking to someone and when you are online.

Also, some reports stated that the user data collected by Truecaller was on sale on the dark web. However, Truecaller has outright dismissed the claims and said there was no data breach.

Is Truecaller A Spy App?

After allegations were made about Truecaller being a spy app they have come up with a tweet where they stated that there is some misconception and Truecaller isn’t spyware.

In response to reports, we’d like to clarify Truecaller is a Swedish company. We’re unsure why the app is mentioned, but we’re investigating. Truecaller isn’t spyware & all features are permission-based & disabled by default. Learn more about permissions: https://t.co/k37wkmJx5d

— Truecaller (@Truecaller) November 30, 2017

But is it true? Is Truecaller, really trustworthy? We can only say anything about that after looking at what all permissions Truecaller requires and what it does with those permissions on your phone.

What Permissions Does Truecaller Require?

Truecaller isn’t just a caller ID app anymore, it provides lots of other features as well. These features include spam blocker, online payment, phone call recording, messaging, etc. For these features to work properly, Truecaller needs a lot of permissions on your device. Some of these permissions are optional while some are necessary i.e. you have to allow them at any cost if you want to use the Truecaller app.  Some of the permissions that Truecaller requires are as follows.

• Access to the location in order to regionalize the top spammer’s list or for sharing location through text messages.
• Network access to perform searches and receive and transfer data to their servers. This permission also allows Truecaller to send push notifications.
• It also needs access to your microphone in order to record phone calls. Also, it may ask for camera access to use the Scan and Pay feature or for phone number lookup by scanning a number.

How To Manage Your Permissions On Truecaller App?

After giving these many permissions it’s obvious for people to be concerned about their safety on Truecaller. However, you should not be worried because Truecaller allows its users to manage how their personal details are shown to others on the app. It lets the user edit their profile any time they want or even deactivate their account if they want.

Moreover, there’s also an option to unlist your personal details from the app if you feel unsafe on it. Hence, I don’t call Truecaller a spy app and think it’s trustworthy because it keeps you in control of your information on the platform.

What’s even better is that it let you disable the last seen option on the app if you don’t want others to see it when you are on a call or when you last used the app. If you want to disable the last-seen feature of the app then you can follow these steps.

• Open the Truecaller app. Now tap on the three dots icon in the top right corner.

• You will find the Settings option. Tap on it and then go to the Privacy Center option.

• Select Availability and toggle off the feature.

With this, your availability status will be hidden from other Truecaller users and now you can use the app in full privacy.

Is Truecaller Safe To Use? Final Verdict

I have been using Truecaller for a long time now and I really find it useful. It has been in controversy lately for being spyware or a Chinese spy app. However, Truecaller has confirmed that they are not indulged in any spying event, nor are they a Chinese app as they are a Swedish company.

Moreover, Truecaller allows you to manage your permissions and control how your personal information is shown to others. Which makes Truecaller a safe app to use. Overall, I don’t consider Truecaller spyware. But I will recommend you to use it carefully because it does have lots of information about you.

FAQs