The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is expected to soon start setting up new measures to ensure that a caller’s name will show on the phone screen of the user when they receive a call from unknown numbers.
You can see the unknown caller’s name that has been saved in know your customer (KYC) record of subscribers available with the telecom operators. With this measure, you would get to know the name of the caller even if it’s not saved in your contact list.
Currently, we use various third-party apps such as Truecaller to know an unknown caller’s identity. However, the Truecaller does not show a 100 per cent authenticity of a call as the data is mostly crowdsourced. However, this is not the case with the KYC data as it guarantees 100 per cent accuracy.
The KYC data will also enable the authorities to verify if the service providers have conducted the process correctly or resorted to shortcuts due to which the identity of a caller may not be genuine.
Reports have also suggested that a similar measure will be put on the WhatsApp calls since the instant-messaging app is linked to SIM cards. One needs to give their phone number to create a WhatsApp account. A separate exercise would still be required as WhatsApp calls can also be made using computers. In such cases, the link between a SIM card and a WhatsApp account gets broken.
This KYC caller ID mechanism of showing caller’s name on the screen would help users to detect spam and unsolicited calls and helps them to avoid or report to the authority for strict action.
Though some people objected to this step that said that disclosing the name of the caller without user consent would amount to an invasion of privacy, the telecom regulator has dismissed them. TRAI is expected to dealt with the matter in detail in the consultation process.
The final decision will be taken by the Department of Telecommunications after completing the consultation process and recommendation by TRAI. The telecom regulators’ consultation paper would highlight the issues and invite comments from the stakeholders. Then it would hold open-house sessions across major cities before finalising its recommendations.