Scams involving robocalls are very common in India and despite multiple warnings from regulators, many users fall victim to the suspicious calls. The Indian telecom regulator is now working on a consultation paper that would make it easier to determine who sent the message or who is on the other end of the phone call.
It is working on a technique that will allow phones to display a caller’s name even if the number isn’t saved on the person’s phone. This name will be derived from the Know Your Customer (KYC) information that telecom companies must obtain from users before issuing a SIM card.
Tausif Abbas, an advisor to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, told Wired that preparing the paper for this issue would take at least a month. By the time it is finished, the stakeholders will be able to express their opinions on it.
In 2021, India had a significant increase in the number of robocalls. It was the fourth-highest country in terms of spam calls in the same year, according to a report by Swedish company Truecaller. According to the data, a single spammer generated more than 200 million calls from January to October, 2021.
It was also found that over the last few years, Indians have been bombarded with bogus calls, some of which have resulted in financial losses.
While Truecaller can help identify the caller’s identity in some circumstances, because the information is crowdsourced rather than based on government data, the information may not be accurate.
Privacy Concern
While it’s great that there may be a means to track down the caller’s or spammer’s identity, this may not be the best strategy for everyone, especially those who value their privacy. In this case, some policy experts believe the attempt will be ineffective and that it will generate privacy concerns.
According to Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Center for Internet and Society, recognising the person behind spam or scam calls is beneficial. However, he expresses concern about the KYC data sharing because the Indian government has yet to pass a data privacy and protection law.
In addition, Shalini Sivasubramanian of the Center for Policy Research is concerned about the policy’s true aim. According to the senior researcher, if the solution’s sole purpose is to determine the caller’s identity, it will not solve the spam problem, stated the Wired report.
She said: “What purpose is it serving if it just notifies the caller that this person is calling,” she says. “It’s not fully solving the problems of spam calling.”
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