India forces caller-ID apps to feed spam reports to telcos | TechCrunch

The Indian telecommunications regulatory body has updated its rules to mandate that all caller identification and spam-blocking applications must share their user-reported spam data with a blockchain network managed by the country's mobile operators.

This framework is intended to create a unified repository of spam reports to help combat the massive volume of fraudulent and unsolicited phone calls plaguing the region. However, this policy has met with strong resistance from major service providers, most notably Truecaller, which commands a massive user base in India. The company argues that the directive is inherently anticompetitive because it forces private applications to surrender valuable, proprietary consumer insight to telecom networks without receiving any data in return.

Beyond the data-sharing obligations, the updated regulatory framework prohibits these third-party applications from implementing blanket blocks or automatically labeling calls from government-exempted promotional and transactional number ranges. Furthermore, the new rules expand oversight on automated calling technologies, requiring organizations that deploy artificial intelligence voice systems or robocalls to register their operations and numbers with carriers beforehand. Legal and policy experts have raised several concerns regarding the implementation of these measures, highlighting potential issues with user consent, data privacy, and the jurisdictional boundaries of enforcing telecom rules on external software developers.