Truecaller

TrueCaller is a smartphone application that has features of caller-

identification, call-blocking, flash-messaging, call-recording (on TrueCaller
Android up to version 8), Chat & Voice by using the Internet. It
requires users to provide a standard cellular mobile number for
registering with the service. The app is available for Android[1]
and iOS.[2]

Contents
History
Security and privacy issues
References
External links

History
TrueCaller is developed by True Software Scandinavia AB, a
privately held company with a head office in Stockholm, Sweden,
founded by Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam in 2009,[3] but
most of its employees are in India.[4]
TrueCaller on Android
It was initially launched on Symbian and Windows Mobile on 1 Original author(s) True Software
July 2009. It was released for Android and Apple iPhone on 23
Scandinavia
September 2009, for BlackBerry on 27 February 2012, for
Windows Phone on 1 March 2012, and for Nokia Series 40 on 3 Developer(s) True Software
September 2012. Scandinavia
Initial release 1 July 2009
As of September 2012, TrueCaller had five million users[5]
performing 120 million searches of the telephone number database Operating system Android and
every month.[6] As of 22 January 2013, TrueCaller reached 10 iOS
million users.[7] As of January 2017, TrueCaller had reached 250 Type
million users worldwide.[8] As of 4 February 2020, it crossed 200 Telephone
million monthly user-base globally, of which 150 million were directory
from India.[9][10] Caller ID
Spam
On 18 September 2012, TechCrunch announced[11] that
blocker
OpenOcean,[12] a venture capital fund led by former MySQL and
Nokia executives (including Michael Widenius,[13] founder of License Freeware
MySQL), were investing US$1.3 million in TrueCaller to push Website truecaller.com
(https://www.tr
uecaller.com/)
TrueCaller’s global reach.[14] TrueCaller said that it intended to
use the new funding to expand its footprint in "key markets"—specifically North America, Asia and the
Middle East.[15]

In February 2014, TrueCaller received US$18.8 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, alongside
existing investor OpenOcean, TrueCaller chairman Stefan Lennhammer, and an unnamed private investor.
It also announced a partnership with Yelp to use Yelp's API data to help identify business numbers when
they call a smartphone.[16] In October of the same year, they received US$60 million from Niklas
Zennström's Atomico investment firm and from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.[17]

On 7 July 2015, TrueCaller launched its SMS app called TrueMessenger exclusively in India.
TrueMessenger enables users to identify the sender of SMS messages. This launch was aimed at increasing
the company's user base in India[18] which are the bulk of its active users.[4] TrueMessenger was integrated
into the TrueCaller app in April 2017.[19]

In December 2019, TrueCaller announced it plans to go public in an IPO in 2022.[4] TrueCaller has
launched the Covid Hospital Directory keeping in mind the increasing cases of corona infection in India.
Through this directory, Indian users will get information about the telephone number and address of Covid
Hospital.[20]

Security and privacy issues

On 17 July 2013, TrueCaller servers were allegedly hacked into by the Syrian Electronic Army.[21] E
Hacking News reported the group identified 7 sensitive databases it claimed to have exfiltrated, primarily
due to an unmaintained WordPress installation on the servers.[21] Claims made regarding the size of the
databases were inconsistent. On 18 July 2013, TrueCaller issued a statement on its blog stating that their
website was indeed hacked, but claiming that the attack did not disclose any passwords or credit card
information.[22]

In November 2019, India-based security researcher Ehraz Ahmed discovered a security flaw that exposed
user data as well as system and location information. TrueCaller confirmed this information and the bug
was immediately fixed.[23][24]

References
1. "Truecaller - Android-apps op Google Play" (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=c
om.truecaller&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS50cnVlY2FsbGVyIl
0). Retrieved 10 October 2012.
2. "Truecaller - worldwide number search and spam filter for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad" (htt
ps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/truecaller-worldwide-number/id448142450?mt=8). iTunes App
Store. 27 September 2012.
3. Sredaktion, Dagens P. "About Truecaller" (https://www.truecaller.com/about).
4. Rolander, Nicolas (18 December 2019). "Truecaller Branches Out to Fintech Ahead of
Potential IPO" (http://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-12-18/truecaller-branche
s-out-to-fintech-ahead-of-potential-ipo). Bloomberg.
5. Rönnklint, Richard (4 September 2012). "Truecaller når 5 miljoner medlemmar" (https://web.
archive.org/web/20121016054055/http://applovin.se/nyheter/201210305-truecaller-nar-5-mil
joner-medlemmar/) [TrueCaller reaches 5 million members]. AppLovin (in Swedish).
Archived from the original (http://applovin.se/nyheter/201210305-truecaller-nar-5-miljoner-m
edlemmar/) on 16 October 2012.
 6. Harald, Patrik (19 September 2012). "Open Ocean investerar i svenska Truecaller" (http://w
ww.forummag.fi/open-ocean-investerar-i-svenska-truecaller) [Open Ocean invests in
Swedish TrueCaller] (in Finnish). Forummag.fi.
7. Meyer, David (22 January 2013). "Big in India, Swedish phone directory service Truecaller
hits 20M user milestone" (http://gigaom.com/2013/01/22/big-in-india-swedish-phone-director
y-service-truecaller-hits-10m-user-milestone/). Gigaom.
8. "Truecaller in 2017" (https://blog.truecaller.com/2017/01/18/truecaller-in-2017/). Truecaller
Blog. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
9. "Truecaller crosses 200 mn monthly user-base globally; ushers in 150 mn Indians" (https://w
ww.livemint.com/technology/tech-news/truecaller-crosses-200-mn-monthly-user-base-global
ly-ushers-in-150-mn-indians-11580809314476.html). www.livemint.com. 4 February 2020.
Retrieved 4 February 2020.
10. Sheth, Hemani. "Truecaller hits the 200-million mark in monthly active users" (https://www.th
ehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/truecaller-hits-the-200-million-mark-in-monthly-active-user
s/article30733934.ece). @businessline. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
11. Lomas, Natasha (18 September 2012). "Open Ocean Invests $1.3M To Push Crowdsourced
Directory Truecaller's Global Reach" (https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/18/open-ocean-invest
s-1-3m-to-push-crowdsourced-directory-truecallers-global-reach/). TechCrunch.
(TechCrunch was owned by AOL as of 2012). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201209
20000335/https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/18/open-ocean-invests-1-3m-to-push-crowdsourc
ed-directory-truecallers-global-reach/) from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved
24 July 2017.
12. "Investor in Community and Open Source Business" (http://www.openoceancapital.com/).
Open Ocean Capital. 19 September 2012.
13. Videla, Emanuel (19 September 2012). "Miljonregn över svenska Truecaller" (http://it24.idg.s
e/2.2275/1.466729/miljonregn-over-svenska-truecaller) [Millions rain down on Swedish
TrueCaller] (in Swedish). IT24/IDG. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
14. Clayton, Nick (20 September 2012). "Truecaller Collects $1.3 Million for Crowd-Sourced
Phone Book" (https://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/09/20/truecaller-collects-1-3-million-fo
r-crowd-sourced-phone-book/?mod=WSJBlog). Tech Europe - Wall Street Journal.
15. Lomas, Natasha (18 September 2012). "Open Ocean Invests $1.3M To Push Crowdsourced
Directory Truecaller's Global Reach" (https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/18/open-ocean-invest
s-1-3m-to-push-crowdsourced-directory-truecallers-global-reach/). TechCrunch.
16. Crook, Jordan (6 February 2014). "Truecaller Lands $18.8M Series B From Sequoia,
Partners With Yelp To Verify Business Numbers" (https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/06/truecall
er-lands-18-8m-series-b-from-sequoia-partners-with-yelp-to-verify-business-numbers/). Tech
Crunch.
17. "Sweden's Truecaller clinches $60 million in venture capital funding" (https://www.reuters.co
m/article/us-sweden-truecaller-financing-idUSKCN0HX1PX20141008). Reuters. Retrieved
8 October 2014.
18. Agarwal, Amit (7 July 2015). "Truecaller Launches SMS App In India, Aims 150 mn Users
Base" (http://idigitalorbis.blogspot.com/2015/07/truecaller-sms-app-Truemessenger-India-an
droid.html). Digital World.
19. "Take Back Control of Your SMS Inbox" (https://truecaller.blog/2017/04/03/take-back-control-
of-your-sms-inbox/). Truecaller. 3 April 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
20. "Truecaller Launches Covid Hospital Directory, To Get Phone Number Information of Covid
Hospitals" (https://gadgets.techly360.com/truecaller-launches-covid-hospital-directory/).
Gadgets Techly360. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
21. Selvan, Sabari (17 July 2013). "Truecaller Server hacking" (http://www.ehackingnews.com/2
013/07/truecaller-database-hacked-by-syrian.html). eHacking News.
22. "Truecaller Statement post hacking" (https://truecaller.blog/2013/07/18/truecaller-statement/).
Official blog. Truecaller. 18 July 2013.
23. "Researcher Discovered A Critical Security Flaw In The Truecaller App" (https://in.mashabl
e.com/tech/8839/researcher-discovered-a-critical-security-flaw-in-the-truecaller-app).
Mashable India. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
24. "Security Flaw In Android, iOS Phone App: 'Immediate Fix' For 150 Million Users" (https://w
ww.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/11/24/critical-flaw-in-android-ios-phone-app-left-150-
million-users-at-risk/#52223e221ec0). Forbes. Retrieved 27 November 2019.

External links
Official website (https://www.truecaller.com/)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Truecaller&oldid=1110199107"

This page was last edited on 14 September 2022, at 05:31 (UTC).

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