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Comment by tegeek | Hacker News Reader

Here in Sweden we use TrueCaller [1] which is almost the same as FB Hello. It is available for Android, iOS, and WP. And pretty much cover the entire world. It will be interesting to see how TrueCaller can compete with FB Hello.

1. http://www.truecaller.com/

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Pretty much everyone I know in India uses this too! It's one of the very essential apps here cause of call abuse. Will be very interesting to see how this plays out, indeed.

Thanks for pointing this out! My volume of spam robocalls and SMS has gone through the roof this year, and I knew there had to be some app that did like a collaborative blacklist for these numbers. This TrueCaller appears to do the trick.

Play store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.truecaller

I don't know where their data comes from, but after putting my number, all I get is the city it's in (which the area code makes obvious anyway).

When you install it, it takes data from your address book. That's how it gathers data.

Sounds horrible! I shouldn't have to give them my address book to find out if whomever is calling me is a spammer. I wonder what they're doing with the data? Also, phone numbers change hands. What happens when my friend John Doe changes his number and it goes to a spammer? Do I suddenly get marked somehow as being associated with spammers?

And I wonder how vulnerable it is to consensus abuse like search engines are. If a few people name someone "Douchebag", what comes up on other phones?

I think it does not come from your address book. Rather, it builds the database from each one of us who register with truecaller with thier numbers. So for example: I register with my phone number 123456789, and you register with your phone number 987654321. Both these numbers would be stored on Truecaller's servers and when you get a call from my number 123456789, and even if you don't have my phone number in your phonebook, you still get to see that I am calling you with my name (the details come from the server). You need Wifi/data connection to get truecaller working. That's my understanding , unless I am utterly wrong.

You are utterly wrong. Truecaller does take its data from the contact book. It's very easy to test as well. If you happen to know someone's number is not on truecaller, do this - add his number in your contact book with some fake name and install true caller after that. When he calls you, you'll see the fake name.

Hmm.. I am not sure you are right.

http://www.truecaller.com/support#/General/a3

http://www.truecaller.com/support#/Android/a24

It says: When you download Truecaller from Google Play, it NEVER uploads your phonebook to make it searchable or public. Truecaller needs access to certain capabilities to provide you with a richer experience.

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