appreciated this rec. trying it out, so far looks legit. always worried that these things are free (so what data of mine are they selling) but the permissions seem locked down
But where there are no strong privacy laws like india, truecaller is straight up spyware
https://restofworld.org/2022/how-truecaller-built-a-billion-...
And at least as of a few years ago, Truecaller would upload a copy of your phonebook to their servers. That's how they bootstrapped their database - from user's addressbooks. I only ever used it on a burner with an empty phone book, and occasionally get Truecaller pearls like "Annoying John - do not answer" as the caller's name.