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

[MacRumors]

A new iOS app launching today, called WhoApp, plans to provide its users with detailed information about unknown callers soliciting their smartphones. Created by developer TelTech, WhoApp promises to recognize calls from telemarketers, wrong numbers, and potential scammers by returning information about the unknown dialer's name, picture, address, and even a Google Street View image of their location.

The app works through a two-step process: when users receive an undesirable call from a number not stored in their iPhone, they hit the decline button to send the call to WhoApp. Next, the app dials back the number to your phone with all of WhoApp's promised data points, allowing you to make a better decision about whether or not the call needs to be answered or ignored.

"For nearly a decade, we have focused on building innovative privacy and security apps that help people take control of their phones, and WhoApp will be another game-changer for iPhone users constantly wondering, 'Should I take that call?'" said Meir Cohen, WhoApp's CEO. "Turning caller ID into a name, face, and even a person's front lawn was never before possible, and will change the way we use our iPhones."

TelTech created a similar app before, called TrapCall [Direct Link], but WhoApp notably differs from the company's previous unknown caller ID creation in that it's free to download and requires no subsequent in-app purchases or paid subscription services.

WhoApp has a few other features as well, including its own phone dialing pad that lets users look up information on a phone number to find more information about someone before hitting the dial button. TelTech also says that the app "learns and grows with every call," getting smarter with age in determining between different types of calls, from scams and telemarketers, to someone potentially important not yet stored in your smartphone.

Privacy and information gathering may be an issue for some users interested in WhoApp (the setup process requires access to an iPhone's address book, and it's heavily encouraged for users to connect to Facebook), but TelTech has launched a suite of call-related apps that have encouraged individual privacy. One of its previous creations, RoboKiller, won the FTC's anti-robocall competition last year, and another encourages identity protection by spoofing a user's real name and number on other smartphones to ensure anonymity.

WhoApp is currently available exclusively on the iOS App Store [Direct Link], but TelTech is additionally planning to launch the app on Android sometime this fall.

Update: WhoApp has been removed from the App Store, which the company claims is a temporary move to clean up the app and relaunch it in the coming weeks. Its removal is theorized by some to be at the hands of Apple due to privacy concerns, since the app accesses a user's address book to add entries into its massive "Contacts Database," bolstering its unknown caller identification features. According to one MacRumors tipster, "The app stole the address book info on my computer and sold it."

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

 

[Nimrad]

Apple: We want this as an add-on to incoming calls. We don't want to decline and click on an app. Been waiting for this for years now.

 

[LordQ]

Apple should buy this!

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

Is it anything like TrueCaller?
Used to love it when I used an Android device, and was one of the first apps to download when I shifted to iOS.

Imo, it's the best app to keep away from spam/scam calls.

 

[_mdavenport]

WhatsApp
WhoApp

Next up: WhereApp, WhenApp, WhyApp?

 

[jammasternate]

Apple should buy this!

TrueCaller should buy this!

First time anyone's done this right on iOS

 

[ButteryScrollin]

so the VM goes to WhoApp and not my phone?

 

[JoEw]

so the VM goes to WhoApp and not my phone?

This app is a privacy nightmare, they get all this information by uploading people's address books who sign up.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

Fascinating. I just installed it and looked up a strange number that called me earlier. This looks like it could be a great app.

 

[MarrkDJ]

WhatsApp
WhoApp

Next are WhereApp, WhenApp, WhyApp?

That's confusing. We need a HowApp.

 

[Shpyda]

WhatsApp
WhoApp

Next are WhereApp, WhenApp, WhyApp?

WhoApp's on first

 

[macduke]

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.

 

[KazKam]

This app is a privacy nightmare, they get all this information by uploading people's address books who sign up.

I have this concern as well. However, in this case, the utility this app provides may out-weigh the "invasion." How else can you build a crowd-sourced uber-contact-list without info from the crowd?

 

[iMerik]

Apple should buy this!

Honestly, yes. With services arguably lagging behind Google (maybe not with privacy but pretty much every other aspect), this would be a nice incentive to stick with Apple.

 

[mw360]

This app is a privacy nightmare, they get all this information by uploading people's address books who sign up.

This, everyone, this. It's not just scammers' photos and front lawns they're going to be harvesting, it's yours too.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

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.

Yup, same process I do too.

 

[vsthsd]

This app is a privacy nightmare, they get all this information by uploading people's address books who sign up.

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...

 

[ptb42]

This app is a privacy nightmare, they get all this information by uploading people's address books who sign up.

And, by collecting the number of every call that you decline.

I hate telemarketers as much as the next person, but I'm not willing to provide all this personal information to someone else.

 

[OriginalMacRat]

What we really need is tougher regulation of phone numbers and the companies or entities behind them.

The majority of the spam calls are now VOIP coming in from other countries.

The phone number is forged. (Which causes havoc for the person that has the real number.)

 

[kemal]

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

 

[eMacmadman]

Yeah, this app wants a Facebook connection? No, won't be installing this one. I'm not a Facebook devotee, but just no. There is enough information gathering already going on.

 

[vsthsd]

Yeah, this app wants a Facebook connection? No, won't be installing this one. I'm not a Facebook devotee, but just no. There is enough information gathering already going on.

They want every chance to x-reference a phonenumber / full-name by region/city, then scrape the FB profile to the DB. That's even scarier since each contact that matches could also contain that contact's FB data.

 

[DotCom2]

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...

Oh jeez.
Yeah, no thanks!

 

[now i see it]

and another encourages identity protection by spoofing a user's real name and number on other smartphones to ensure anonymity.

Oh great...

So first they create an app that hides and spoofs a caller's ID, which by the way data mines the crap out of you...then some time later they create an app that tries to identify the caller, which by the way data mines the crap out of you.

That's two craps in a row. Something smells around here.

 

[redscull]

There needs to be a system where a number can get flagged by users, and then a government agency investigates the business or entity... then be held responsible for what happens on that phone line

How would you like to get investigated by a government agency when your phone number gets used to make a scammer call? Many of you seem to be under the impression that these scam artists are actually signing up for phone numbers and then using them to place their solicitation calls. That's not how it works. The robo-dialers can pose as any phone number, including yours, and do so randomly. Have you actually tried calling back the number of a robo-dialer? You often reach some bewildered business or resident who has no idea what you're talking about. I've even had a robo-dial that, against all odds, spoofed an actual person from my own contact list.