Truecaller under fire after app signs up for UPI without consent

NEWDELHI: Popular mobile application developer Truecaller was caught in a privacy controversy on Tuesday after several users in India reported being signed up to use the company’s Upi-based mobile payments service without opting for it – an occurrence that the company said was due to a bug.

Some of these users believed they were target of a fraud and took to social media platforms such as Twitter to post screenshots of text messages their phones automatically sent out, prompting privacy experts to criticise the company for what they saw as breach of trust.

“I woke up and checked my Android phone, which auto-updated a few apps, including Truecaller. It automatically, immediately sent an encrypted SMS from my phone to an unknown number, following which ICICI Bank sent me a text message saying my UPI app registration has started,” said Bengaluru-based software developer Dheeraj Kumar, who was among the first to report it on Twitter.