News Analysis India

Tag: Truecaller

  • Truecaller Partners With Microsoft: Users Can Now Generate Digital Voice Replicas |

    New Delhi: The popular caller identification app, Truecaller has introduced a collaboration with Microsoft. They’re using Microsoft’s new ‘Personal Voice’ tech from Azure AI Speech. This feature lets users create a digital version of their own voice. 

    Since its launch in 2022 Truecaller’s AI Assistant has been equipped with various AI technologies. It can handle tasks like answering calls, screening them, taking messages, responding for you, and even recording calls for your review later on. (Also Read: India Exports Over 45,000 Tonnes Of Onions After Ban Lifted)

    “The personal voice feature allows our users to use their own voice, enabling the digital assistant to sound just like them when handling incoming calls,” Raphael Mimoun, Product Director and General Manager, Truecaller Israel, said in a statement. (Also Read: Buddha Purnima Holiday: Banks To Remain Closed In THESE Cities & States On May 23)

    “This groundbreaking capability not only adds a touch of familiarity and comfort for the users but also showcases the power of AI in transforming the way we interact with our digital assistants,” he added.

    The addition of Microsoft’s Personal Voice tech to Truecaller’s AI Assistant means that if you already have Assistant on your app, you can have your callers hear a replicated and authentic version of your voice instead of one of the many digital assistants on offer.This feature is being rolled out gradually across all of Truecaller’s markets, the company said. (With IANS Inputs)

  • Indian techies launch Bharatcaller ID App, to capture Truecaller’s market

    Express News Service

    PATNA: A 33-year-old youth of Patna, along with his friends, has developed an app called ‘Bharatcaller ID App’ to give an reliable Indian option to replace ‘Truecaller’. 

    This is claimed to be a 100 per cent Indian-made caller app, created by a group of young techies at the initiative of Patna-based engineer Prajjwal Sinha. 

    Speaking to this daily, Prajjwal Sinha claimed that the ‘Bharatcaller ID App’ is more secure than the other caller ID apps, including the Truecaller, in terms of access to data of callers and safety of caller’s digital privacy.

    “In it, the privacy of caller is not allowed to be breached allowing access to data and to message. The access to message is also not demanded from the users while installing and activating this app,” he said.

    He said that further improvement will also be added on the call locks service and other features. Prajjwal has done BTech from Bangalore and MBA from IIM.  Prajjwal, who was interested in science and computer science from the beginning, did not know that Bharatcaller app would become such a hit in such a short time after its launch.

    Prajjwal Sinha and his engineer friends, working with the ‘KickHead Software Pvt Ltd’, devoted 15 days to develop the Bharatcaller ID App on the lines of a truecaller app.

    The team behind Bharatcaller ID App.

    “In the last 15 days, after it was launched on August 15 this year, more than 1.70 lakh users have installed the app on their smart phones,” Sinha claimed. He hoped that the number of users will multiply in next few months because of its safe and secure pattern of working.

    Prajjwal was given the National Award for Startup by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.

    Sinha worked with his engineer friends like Kunal Pasricha, Ranjita Singh, Anu, Aparajita Prasad, Shashank Shekhar, Shyantan, Vivek, Sourabh and Sagnik to develop the app for the nation inspired by the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for working towards self reliance in every field of development.

    “With the installation of this BharatcallerID App, you are able to see the list of people who have viewed your profile and no contact detail is shared with others. It is completely free of cost and only relies on ADS to generate revenue,” he said.

    Prajjwal said that keeping in mind of the security of the country, a reputed app was banned by the Indian Army last year and from that time, he decided to develop a native app for the nation.

  • HC issues notices to Centre, Maharashtra over PIL claiming Truecaller breached data privacy norms

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Union and Maharashtra governments, among others, over a public interest litigation (PIL) claiming that the Truecaller mobile application “shared” user data breaching legal norms of the country.

    A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni was hearing a PIL filed by one Shashank Posture. “The Truecaller app collects data of all users. It shares such data with some of its partners without the consent of users, and dumps the liability on the user,” the petitioner told the court.

    “This is a manipulative set up because the user has no choice. The app also registers users for a Unified Payments Interface service without their consent, or without due process,” Posture alleged.

    When the court asked who were these partners benefitting from Truecaller, Posture named “Google India, Bharati Airtel, ICICI Bank”, and claimed that several loan providing companies were also the beneficiaries of such data leaks by the app.

    Posture further said he had impleaded the Union government, the Maharashtra government, the state IT department, Truecaller international LLP, ICICI Bank, and the National Payment Corporation as respondent parties in the case.

    Posture alleged that the government authorities approved Truecaller app “without proper checks and in contravention of the information security practices rules”.

    The High Court said this was a fit case for issuing notices. “The case of the petitioner is that Truecaller through its mobile application has indulged in an absolute breach of data privacy of citizens. He submits that such breach is contrary to data protection laws,” the court said.

    “We have heard the petitioner for some time and we are of the opinion that a notice is required to be issued to respondents,” it said, directing the respondent parties to reply to the notice within three weeks.