Phone frauds using AI a big threat key area for Truecaller to invest in: Alan Mamedi

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Alan Mamedi, Co-Founder, Truecaller, says he welcomes the Indian government bringing in laws on data privacy. “We think it is great. We think not only does it protect consumers like Truecaller does, but it also helps businesses. It empowers businesses to grow as well, but in a structured way,” says Mamedi.

There have been instances of AI aided phone frauds with fraudsters impersonating a relative, friend or others. How is Truecaller tackling this menace?
We launched our AI assistant that can pick up the calls.

What we are working on right now is to use this assistant to also detect whether our AI is speaking to another AI. And it is a hard problem to solve, but it is something that we are working on because we do believe that this type of fraud will continue to grow, where scammers will pretend to be someone you know, like a relative or a government official or and so forth. So it is definitely a big threat going forward.

And that is a key area for us to invest in, for sure.

Many times there are concerns about data, the customer's data, the user's data. In India, definitely it is one big point of concern. And soon there is going to be a law on data privacy. How safe are customer's data in your hand? Yes, it is a valid concern.

Now, when it comes to our users in India, we have an Indian entity, an Indian company which not only employs Indian employees but also processes Indian data in India. So nothing leaves the country. And why do we do this? We do not do it because we need to.

We do it because it is a way for us to bring trust towards the community of users that we have. You know, when it comes to the new data law, we are definitely positive about it. We think it is great.