India Mandates Spam-Blocking Apps to Share User Data With Telcos

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has amended commercial communication rules to require caller-ID and call-management apps to share user-generated spam reports with telecom operators. According to reporting from TechCrunch, these reports must be sent to a blockchain-based platform maintained by the carriers to help enforce anti-spam measures.

Truecaller, which serves over 350 million users in India, has labeled the requirement "anti-competitive." A spokesperson for the Stockholm-based company told TechCrunch the mandate creates a "one-way exchange" that transfers commercially valuable data to the operators. Truecaller reported that its Indian users encountered roughly 42 billion spam calls in 2025, with the company blocking nearly 12 billion of them.

Beyond data sharing, TRAI's updated rules prohibit these apps from blanket blocking or spam-tagging calls from specific government-designated number ranges used for transactional, service, and promotional communications. While individual users can still block these calls manually, Truecaller argues this "free pass" has caused spam to skyrocket.

Additional regulations now target AI-powered and automated calls. Under TRAI's application-to-person (A2P) framework, robocalls and those using artificial voices must be declared to operators in advance or be treated as spam. Satya N. Gupta, a former additional secretary at TRAI, told TechCrunch that while AI technology is not restricted, disclosure is required. Operators may now charge a termination fee of up to 5 paise per minute for these A2P calls.

Experts cited by TechCrunch, including Sumeysh Srivastava of The Quantum Hub and Kazim Rizvi of The Dialogue, noted lingering uncertainties regarding enforcement mechanisms and the specific types of data apps must transmit.