'WhoApp' Provides Users With Detailed Unknown Caller Information for Free [Updated]

[urtules]

Don't give up your address book, let's wait for Apple to have something similar as an iOS feature.
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Not iOS 8 compatible. Please support older iOS

If your device supports iOS 8, you can update to 9. Do it. It even improves performance for old devices. By updating you help developers move things forward and write better code.

 

[dennysanders]

I won't be losing sleep over it. But I appreciate your concerned post.

you won't be losing any sleep over your lack of privacy? i thought that was "pretty big" for you

 

[nbs2]

Going to suggest that you avoid this. Tried it, didn't like it, can't get my voicemails, even following their instructions. Not pleased.

Edit: take that back. Just took a while for ATT to parse the messages. Still don't like them not being *very* up front about hijacking voicemail, even if it is a technical requirement.

 

[nbs2]

Oops I fell for it.
It raided all my contacts
Had to give It access to either face/google
Totally ate my battery, demolished it actually
Went to uninstall
Noticed voicemails forwarded
Discovered had to disable call forwarding
Crap, I fell for it

If it makes you feel better, it isn't the brightest app. I entered a friend's phone number as a test and instead of her data it returned a guy living on the opposite side of the country.

 

[macduke]

The U.S. government cannot legislate against/regulate junk calls. The existence of the "Do Not Call" list today proves this. It's existed for years and having your number(s) on it seems to do very little to absolutely nothing, from my personal experience.

To reiterate, I'm not talking about legislation, I'm talking about a technical solution on the networks that would prevent users from spoofing numbers. Would you like it if your number was spoofed and used to robo call millions of people? You'd likely be blocked from calling many places.

Your right I probably should have said "Freedom" instead of "Capitalism". What if I want to report my neighbor for breaking the law, but don't want anyone to know that I reported it. I'm OK with preventing spoofing as long as the ability to place anonymous phone calls is not removed. Freedom requires anonymity. I think one reason people don't report more crimes today is that they don't trust the police to keep their report and phone number confidential. It used to be you could just go to a pay phone and remain confidential. We have lost that ability since cell phones don't have an anonymous button.

That's an interesting point that I haven't thought about. I've never had to report a serious crime, so I never worried about giving my name. A problem with that today is that many younger people think it's funny to report people for crimes (see swatting) or otherwise try to get someone in trouble that they don't like. People don't take the law as seriously any more. Everything is a gray area. There is no real right or wrong. But alas, that's a societal problem.

 

[Buran]

No kidding. Their privacy policy:

"When you give WhoApp permission to do so, WhoApp accesses your mobile phone’s address book and collects the names, phone numbers, addresses and certain other information about your contacts ("Contact Information"). WhoApp incorporates Contact Information into a database that it maintains of all its users’ contacts (“Contacts Database “). When your Contact Information is incorporated into the Contacts Database, it is no longer linked or linkable back to you. The Contacts Database is used by WhoApp and by apps that are offered by the company that offers WhoApp (or its affiliates) to fulfill customers’ requests for service and to improve each app’s services for its customers. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT IF YOUR PHONE’S ADDRESS BOOK CONTAINS AN ENTRY FOR YOU, THAT INFORMATION WILL BE DOWNLOADED TO THE CONTACTS DATABASE JUST LIKE ANY OTHER CONTACT INFORMATION."

No thanks - I don't want my friends/family (with address and pictures?) to be entered in here, and I hope they wouldn't either.

Edit: Is this even legal? Sharing personal information of others w/o consent? This is really scary/sketchy stuff. If each phone has an average of say, 50 contacts, and they get 100,000 users...

I downloaded it, entered my number, then started reading the user agreement. Killed the app, deleted it from my phone. At least I have it in my account now if they ever shape up and can get it back even if it vanishes from the store. (I think.)

 

[nt5672]

There are legitimate cases for anonymity, but IMO accusing someone of a crime is not one of them. The accused has a right to know who reported him. . . . .

No they don't. If the police investigate and find a crime then it does not matter who reported it, the person is guilty regardless. The only reason for the accused to know, is so they can take revenge. Now if someone witnesses a crime and that witness statement is used for the prosecution of the crime, then yes the accused has a right to know. However, that is handled by the judicial system and has nothing to do with anonymous phone calls.

 

[Rigby]

No they don't. If the police investigate and find a crime then it does not matter who reported it, the person is guilty regardless.

Not if the witness report is the primary evidence linking the accused to the crime. The police has to have a way to investigate the credibility of the witness account, which is obviously not possible if the witness remains unknown.

The only reason for the accused to know, is so they can take revenge.

Oh my. I think someone watched too many movies.

Now if someone witnesses a crime and that witness statement is used for the prosecution of the crime, then yes the accused has a right to know. However, that is handled by the judicial system and has nothing to do with anonymous phone calls.

And how does the "judicial system" identify the witness if they called anonymously?

 

[AsherN]

What is the profit model? Are they tracking our calling habbits?

A sell-able database of verified names, addresses, phone and email addresses. That's the business model.
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For all of you complaining about this app accessing your contacts (or those of your friends/family), how is this different from any of the other common apps accessing the same information?

Facebook messenger ties into your contact list, as do all of the common "chat" apps (WhatsApp, Line, Viber), as do many of Google's apps (Voice and Hangouts), as well as any of the social mapping "how close are my friends?" or dating apps that show you the friends of your friends who are also on the app.

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure there are some SJWs out there who are looking for the chance to say how proud they are to not use any of these apps, but they lie.

Offline vs online. That an app accesses the contacts stored on my phone is one thing. Uploading it to a db somewhere is entirely different.

 

[xtshabi]

Every time I get a suspect call, I just copy and paste the number into Google. About 9/10 times it finds the number immediately as a spammer, and I just tap block on the number and never get a call from them again.

What we really need is tougher regulation of phone numbers and the companies or entities behind them. There needs to be a system where a number can get flagged by users, and then a government agency investigates the business or entity. It's incredible to me that there are so many businesses and shady operations able to get an actual phone number that they can then use to spam and scam innocent people. Many times older people (I mean old enough that they get confused easily) are taken advantage of by these people. How can they get a phone number without some sort of deeper information provided to the phone company? To get a phone number, you should have to register a lot of verified personal info, and then be held responsible for what happens on that phone line. It shouldn't be so easy to get a phone number anonymously.

More regulations! That will surely solve problems.

 

[nt5672]

Not if the witness report is the primary evidence linking the accused to the crime.

Which is not what I was talking about.

The police has to have a way to investigate the credibility of the witness account, which is obviously not possible if the witness remains unknown.
Oh my. I think someone watched too many movies.

Or having lived in a neighborhood with scary people that would take out their anger out on my children.

And how does the "judicial system" identify the witness if they called anonymously?

I know this is news to you, but the judicial system won't charge someone without a witness.

 

[thehipsch]

Pray tell, how is your company going to make money so that you can keep the lights on? You have a free app with no subscription model.

Your privacy policy seems to state that you share the contact information you receive with other companies -- "affiliates" is a vague term that can mean just about anything. Surely you know that there are phone numbers in people's iPhones that are not public knowledge (Tim Cook's number, Jony Ive's number, celebrities, etc.) Even if you de-link the name of the person providing the contact data with the data itself, you're still going to potentially have some pretty sensitive phone numbers which cannot be found in an online database.

They say on their site that they may add premium features in the future. Also, the bottom of the whoapp site says that it is a TelTech product, and I looked up TelTech - it seems as though they have a few other apps out there that keep the lights on.

 

[Bilalo]

And Truecaller, like this app and many others, is at risk from legal challenges in respect of data privacy legislation. It is capturing, storing and processing personal data (PII) without the explicit consent of the individuals or data subjects. That at the very least is a dodgy basis based on current EU data privacy laws, and is certainly contrary to the new version due to come into effect in 2017. If I was a data privacy lawyer in the EU I'd be licking my lips in anticipation...

its 2016, there is no privacy in terms of where someone lives, or what their number is, like cmon lol. its all online, will never be removed, and why such the fuss, just continue your lives. If you think you can sue someone because of legal, you cant because its cross borders and its so difficult!

 

[AsherN]

its 2016, there is no privacy in terms of where someone lives, or what their number is, like cmon lol. its all online, will never be removed, and why such the fuss, just continue your lives. If you think you can sue someone because of legal, you cant because its cross borders and its so difficult!

We usually keep a lot of information in our contacts. If you think those apps only grab name, phone and address, you are sadly mistaken.