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Telecom operators have raised concerns over user privacy over the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (CNAP) proposal for Calling Name Presentation (CNAP), under which phones will have to display the name of the caller by extracting the name of the telecom subscriber from its SIM registration data.
“From the data privacy aspect, we submit that the name of the telecom subscriber is his personal data and under the prevailing jurisprudence on the subject, we understand that sharing his name with any third party requires the consent of the telecom subscriber ,” Reliance Jio said in its submission to the telecom regulator. Reliance acknowledged that CNAP would be a “good to have” feature, but said that there are still a large number of devices that do not support the feature in the first place, such as cheap feature phones that are equipped with 4G technology.
“While the CNAP would be a step towards protecting the right of the called party to identify the caller against spamming, it would conflict with the privacy concern of the called party who may be able to see what is on the called person’s screen.” Don’t want to flash your name.Party,” Vodafone Idea said in its filing, adding that CNAP may be launched as an optional service.
Bharti Airtel similarly said user privacy would have to be balanced when rolling out CNAP, but also proposed using predictive analytics to weed out people “misusing” personal mobile numbers for business purposes. gave. The telco said the “caller ID system” should be considered only for telemarketers/commercial users/A2P callers in the initial phase.
Truecaller – the popular private caller ID app that is likely to be affected by TRAI’s proposal – made its submission, where it warned that using SIM registration data to display callers’ names was a sinister approach. Pointing to the widespread purchase of SIM cards with fake identities and the fact that individuals can register up to nine phone numbers in their name, Alan Mamedi, the company’s chief executive, argued that “the identity of the actual user of the mobile number Subscriber,” and that there was “immense value in crowdsourced information to address the challenge of fraud and scam”.
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which represents digital industry firms, said the proposal could particularly harm women. “The service will display the name and data of a female subscriber to each calling party, whether she consents to it or not,” the association warned, warning that such “problems are gendered in nature and are more common than men”. There is and should be more potential for women.” Been addressed”.
BSNL stated that “In the initial phase of implementation, the CNAP service should be provided as a Value Added Service (VAS) to the customers with additional features including the option to choose the name of the customer by their preferred name, commercial name, a public institution or a non-government organization”. Permitted to use organization name, trademark etc.” The state-owned telco said it was in favor of introducing the caller ID system, as consumers were “actively” seeking information on callers due to spam and fraud calls.