The IB or the Intelligence Bureau of India has put forth a request to the Department of Telecom, asking it to effectively block an app named ‘We Phone’ in India, as it poses a risk to security with its unique features. This free calling application works somewhat like Skype and Viber, but is capable of hiding the caller’s information.
‘We Phone’ which is available for download currently through the Google Play store and the Apple App Store, lets you place calls over the Internet, thus eliminating the need for usual network connectivity. It is hence particularly useful for those who use tablets, as most slates do not have the the necessary hardware for voice calling facility in them.
The problem arises from the We Phone applications’s ability to place spoof calls, which means caller IDs on smartphones that are receiving the calls show different numbers than the ones that the calls are being made from. Users can moreover, insert any number they wish the app to display to the callers. There’s hence the danger of the app being used to wrong purposes.
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According to Financial Express, the Intelligence Bureau has told DoT that the server of ‘We Phone’ is situated outside India, which makes it difficult to identify and locate the actual calling number or user. It had written to DoT with the blocking request around a month back, but the applications on both the Android and iOS platforms still seem to be available for download.
Let’s see now if the DoT considers the IB’s request to block ‘We Phone’ in the near future.