Remove your number from Truecaller or use proper privacy settings

TrueCaller, the caller ID app for the smartphone has helped hundreds of millions of users in the past few years to identify the callers. We with the help of Truecaller can get that vital info before picking up that call, whether a friend, a spam or a sales call or someone with a name on the other side of the ringing phone. Actually, that looks cool. Yes, of course, it is. But it will not be as cool as you think once you know Truecaller viciously collected all your basic profile information and store them in their databases and serves to its world of users when they ask for it. The utter truth is, even if you never used Truecaller, your profile information is with them. Yes, you heard it right.

The age of privacy is over!?

TrueCaller collects not only your data, also all of the contacts you have on your phone. The sad part is, you remain guilty of sharing your friend’s contact information with Truecaller without their concern. Doubting that? Read their privacy policy on Truecaller website. If you know how Truecaller works? Skip this paragraph. Assume this scenario. Your old friend Joe calls you, but his number is not in your contact list, fortunately, Truecaller has that info, his name corresponding to the number from which he’s calling. The catch is Joe never used Truecaller before, not even once. Now the question is, how did Truecaller get Joe’s info? If a common friend lets say, John has Joe’s contact on his phone and has Truecaller installed, now Truecaller collects all of the contact info along with Joe’s and uses them to show Joe is calling when you even don’t have his number. Here Joe’s privacy is broken, likewise yours, all of us who use Truecaller and who’s detail stored in a phone that has Truecaller installed. Did they get permission from Joe to use his details? No. Hardly you could do anything about this privacy bleed. But you have two options on the table. Either to unlist your number from Truecaller database or adjust your settings for available minimal privacy leak option.

Unlisting your number from Truecaller

Hit this link to Truealler’s unlist page on their site, enter your phone number and unlist. You need to deactivate your Truecaller account from the smartphone before doing this. This won’t work if your number is blacklisted by many users.

Adjust privacy settings

Open Truecaller app, go to Settings -> Privacy Center -> Choose “Requests approved by me” under ‘Who can see my Truecaller profile?’. Remember one thing. The above setting protects you only against searching your contact with your name. People having your phone number can still see your details in Truecaller until you entirely get out of Truecaller by unlisting yourself. One suggestion is, give your profile data clearly in Truecaller profile setting to avoid showing wrong or misleading info about you on other’s phone when you call them. Yes, that’s more like losing your privacy by giving out own details, but it is the only option to avoid Truecaller from showing inappropriate names when you call others. There’s not even a single solid way to get rid of Truecaller. The boon is the bane in the case of Truecaller.