Legal experts warn that Truecaller is probably breaking South Africa’s privacy laws

mylesillidge

mylesillidge

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Truecaller warning in South Africa

Truecaller says it does not want to speculate on the personal opinions of specialist regulatory lawyers who say that it was likely violating South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).

“Every individual has an inherent fundamental right to know who is calling them, and we enable our users to exercise it,” a Truecaller spokesperson told MyBroadband.
 
mylesillidge said:
Truecaller warning in South Africa

Truecaller says it does not want to speculate on the personal opinions of specialist regulatory lawyers who say that it was likely violating South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).

“Every individual has an inherent fundamental right to know who is calling them, and we enable our users to exercise it,” a Truecaller spokesperson told MyBroadband.
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Probably? Definitely!
 
The solution is easy. Close TrueCaller down in SA and suspend all operations. Focus on countries where they can operate legally and make money. Easy as that, Why spend millions on legal costs and then lose your case in any event and having to withdraw at a later stage.
 
rvZA said:
The solution is easy. Close TrueCaller down in SA and suspend all operations. Focus on countries where they can operate legally and make money. Easy as that, Why spend millions on legal costs and then lose your case in any event and having to withdraw at a later stage.
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Or just ignore them. What are they gonna do? Arrest them?
 
The day the POPIA legislation can prevent unsolicited calls from 'debt-restructuring' entities, 3rd party 'we notice your cellphone contract is due for upgrade' call centres, and other 'we can improve your BEE status' or insurance-related nuisance calls, then I will give up TrueCaller, but up until now TrueCaller has been an App. that has helped my privacy. In a nutshell, POPIA legislation is seldom enforced in SA, like most laws, and is basically useless.
 
I have a personal terms and conditions that if you call me you consent to your information to be shared for purposes of spam prevention. But nobody ever asks for it, they are more interested in their own terms and conditions. Have a spam caller ever asked you for a copy of your T&Cs?
 
Judy Grant said:
The day the POPIA legislation can prevent unsolicited calls from 'debt-restructuring' entities, 3rd party 'we notice your cellphone contract is due for upgrade' call centres, and other 'we can improve your BEE status' or insurance-related nuisance calls, then I will give up TrueCaller, but up until now TrueCaller has been an App. that has helped my privacy. In a nutshell, POPIA legislation is seldom enforced in SA, like most laws, and is basically useless.
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Don't need Truecaller to do that though. A decent phone has that all baked in nowadays
 
Speedster said:
Don't need Truecaller to do that though. A decent phone has that all baked in nowadays
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Truecaller is one of the few apps I gladly pay for the premium version. Its automatic call screening is amazing. My phone doesn't even ring when it is a spam call. Used to rely on the Samsung built in stuff but it is weak compared to Truecaller.
 
Johand said:
Truecaller is one of the few apps I gladly pay for the premium version. Its automatic call screening is amazing. My phone doesn't even ring when it is a spam call. Used to rely on the Samsung built in stuff but it is weak compared to Truecaller.
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This.
Even at just 20 bucks a month they've made a pretty penny out of me.
Worth it considering I haven't been bothered by or tricked by a spam call in years.
 
POPIA is like CPA. Awesome as a firelighter. Thats about it. This is South Africa. The emphasis on Africa. These "laws" don't mean sht
 
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Cmon catch the robbers thieves looters, we have a whole list of who we already know and nothing happens....But this app causes major issues... wasting time and energy on crap...
 
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