Understand what Truecaller really does

We are a Swedish company, founded in Stockholm in 2009 and publicly listed on NASDAQ Stockholm. We operate in full compliance with stringent European privacy and data protection standards, including GDPR. We adapt our practices to meet requirements of each country where we operate.

While we serve users across the Globe with large communities in India, Africa and the Middle East, we are NOT a Chinese app and have no ownership or operational ties to China.

We do not sell users' personal data.  Our business model relies on displaying ads in the free version of our service and offering paid Premium subscriptions with advanced features. We may share anonymized data with trusted partners for purposes such as technical services, analytics, and serving relevant ads. This is a standard practice across the digital ecosystem and is transparently outlined in our Privacy Policy.

We do not collect or upload data from your phonebook or contacts. This myth originates from the mandatory permission called “contacts access”. However, contacts access should not be confused with contacts upload.  This local access is required in order to determine if the number on an incoming call is already saved on the device or not.

If already saved, Truecaller does not need to lookup the number, and it will simply show the name you have saved in your phonebook. If not saved, then Truecaller performs a search and shows a result.

This is not true and goes against our core mission to build trust in communication. Our entire purpose as a platform is to identify, filter and reduce such unidentified calls for users. Our business relies on the trust of the people who use our app. Allowing more spam would undermine our credibility and weaken our primary feature, which is spam blocking.

We identify and block billions of spam calls globally, and we offer some blocking options for free. Users who upgrade to Premium get an ad-free experience and enhanced blocking capabilities.

Our success depends entirely on fighting spam, not promoting it.

Truecaller does not read, store or access your personal messages. Your SMS or its content, like one-time passwords or OTPs — never touch our servers. Our app only uses local permissions on your device to detect spam messages and identify important details in your messages like OTPs and other information. All processing happens directly on your phone. This privacy-first design helps us build smarter features without compromising security. Protecting user privacy is central to how Truecaller works, and our entire platform is built on trust, transparency, and user control.

We do not listen to or record your calls. Our app does not have access to your call audio. Our features like caller ID and spam protection work by identifying numbers and patterns, not by monitoring conversations. All call-related actions happen on your device, and your audio stays completely private. Protecting user privacy is fundamental to how Truecaller operates, and listening to calls goes directly against our policies and purpose.

Truecaller fully complies with local and international privacy and data protection laws, including the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We adapt our practices to meet requirements of each country where we operate. 

We do not steal or collect your personal information. We are a permission-based service where users are in full control of all aspects of data that can be processed.  To add to this, Truecaller does not ask for unnecessary permissions. Each permission that we request is tied to a particular feature:

Calls: We collect your name and phone number, and basic call  information (like incoming/outgoing numbers) to verify your account, enable Caller ID, block spam, and display your call history.

Contacts: We access your contacts only on your device to identify callers and show your saved names (e.g. “Mom”). Please note that we do not upload your contacts.

Messages: The SMS functionality of Truecaller is designed to work completely offline. All SMS content is processed locally on the device. Since no information leaves your phone, Truecaller does not access any information to track or target you or build financial profiles of any individual.

We do not provide a searchable directory of random numbers and people can not input a name and get a number. Your profile is private by default, if someone wants to see your number, they need to send you a contact request. 

That might have been true years ago when the app was much heavier, but the current versions are highly optimized to work across the widest section of devices at all different price points. The service runs mostly in the background using minimal battery and resources. 

You can easily remove your number directly from Truecaller’s website. Once we verify it’s really you, your number will permanently disappear from public search results within 24 hours - no questions asked! The only exception is that numbers marked as spam or fraud by the community cannot unlist. 

We do not build financial profiles of anyone. We have no access to your banking activity, credit profile or any other information that could be used to create a financial profile. We access limited SMS data only, and they are processed directly in your phone- they never touch our servers.