Truecaller app signing up users to UPI without taking permission

It’s a “scam”.  It’s a “scandal that has shocked the nation”.  These are just two of the descriptions about the latest Truecaller imbroglio in the town.  What is it about?  Read on…

Truecaller app has auto-registered about 1 crore of its Indian users to its Payment service.  The UPI registration is automatic and it doesn’t need the user’s consent.  ”This is a breach of privacy of the worst order.  This poses a security risk for sure,” a commentator said.  

Curiously, the caller ID company has said that a bug has caused the breach.  It has issued a statement: 

“We have discovered a bug in the latest update of our app that affected the payments feature, which automatically triggered a registration post updating to the version. This was a bug and we have discontinued this version of the app and so no more users will be affected,” the company said.

It added, “We are sorry about this version not passing our quality standards. We have taken quick steps to fix the issue, and already rolled out a fix in a new version. You can manually choose to deregister yourself if your account has been linked to our UPI offering.”