South Africa’s Data Regulator has acquired a grievance that caller ID and spam blocking app Truecaller is violating “a number of sections” of the Safety of Private Data Act (Popia), TechCentral has learnt.
Following an nameless tipoff, TechCentral queried the regulator, and it confirmed it had acquired the grievance.
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“We’re nonetheless inside the timeframe to course of the grievance and allocate it to an investigator, who will then have interaction additional with the complainant and the accountable celebration towards whom the grievance was lodged,” Data Regulator spokeswoman Nomzamo Zondi mentioned. “Subsequently, we’re unable to answer the opposite questions right now.”
The regulator didn’t title the complainant.
Truecaller utilises user-supplied information to establish callers and block spam calls and messages. When a person downloads the app and registers, they provide their title and telephone quantity to the platform, permitting different Truecaller customers to establish them on incoming calls. This motion doesn’t fall foul of any information privateness legal guidelines for the reason that main information topic has agreed to their information getting used on this approach.
The place Truecaller could have an issue is when customers consent to the app downloading their telephone’s handle guide and making it a part of the Truecaller database. Because of this cell subscribers who will not be on Truecaller can have their private info ingested by the app as a result of a 3rd celebration – particularly a contact of theirs – consented to their title and telephone quantity being uploaded.
Underneath Popia, Truecaller could also be required to inform every particular person added to its database through a 3rd celebration that it has accomplished so.
GDPR
A 2022 report by company watchdog Viceroy Analysis accused Truecaller of being an adware and spyware and adware app that will ultimately be made redundant by laws equivalent to Europe’s Basic Knowledge Safety Regulation (GDPR). Viceroy accused Truecaller, a Swedish firm, of intentionally transferring its servers from Europe to India previous to the implementation of GDPR.
“GDPR threatened Truecaller’s spyware and adware options, which feed the spam detection service. In response, Truecaller moved all its information servers and considerably all of its operations to India the place administration seem to consider it’s secure from laws designed shield the privateness of its prospects. This isn’t the case,” Viceroy Analysis mentioned in its report.
Learn: Spam robocall epidemic in South Africa
If the allegations of Truecaller’s Popia violations have advantage, the Data Regulator could also be confronted with a catch-22 state of affairs: uphold information privateness legal guidelines on one hand or empower customers to struggle spam calls on the opposite. No matter its shortcomings could also be, Truecaller has confirmed to be one of the efficient spam detection and rejection strategies out there to customers to struggle the scouge of robo-calls.
TechCentral has requested Truecaller for touch upon the grievance filed with the Data Regulator, however the firm hadn’t responded by the point of publication. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
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