Beware of Robocalls, says Dan Hastings

Robocall-blocking apps assure of blocking spam phone calls but, how trustworthy are they? Never fall for what they claim is what a security researcher says!

Dan Hastings, a senior security consultant at cybersecurity firm, NCC Group checked the credibility of some most popular apps including TrapCall, Truecaller and Hiya and found that they breached users’ privacy.

The researcher quotes, "If most people took the time to read and try to understand privacy policies for all the apps they use (and are able to understand them!), they might be surprised to see how much these apps collect."

It was surprising to know through Hastings that TrapCall, one of the top robocall-blocking apps was sharing people’s numbers to three data analytics firms. This is nowhere mentioned in the privacy policy said Hastings. The company changed its policy now and tells its users that the data is being shared with the third parties.

The company defends by saying, "TrapCall only shares phone numbers with service providers who power our internal analytics and app messaging platforms. Additionally, service providers are prohibited from using TrapCall data for their own or any other purpose.”

Truecaller was also found sending users data to social media platforms without their consent. The company assures of making alterations to its privacy policy.

The firm said, "Note that our Privacy Policy is common across all mobile platforms and that's why the confusion exists. We're looking at updating the privacy policy to make it clearer what we're doing on each platform."