The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on March 4 launched Chakshu, a platform for telecom users to report fraud or spam callers. The facility, available at sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc, aims to allow citizens to “proactively report suspected fraud communication,” the DoT said in its announcement.
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The platform will allow users to report “Bank Account / Payment Wallet / SIM / Gas connection / Electricity connection / KYC update / expiry / deactivation, impersonation as Government official / relative, sextortion related [scams],” the portal says.
The Digital Intelligence Platform was also launched, which would be a non-public data-sharing resource for “Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), law enforcement agencies (LEAs), banks and financial institutions (FIs), social media platforms, identity document issuing authorities etc,” the DoT said.
Caller name
The Minister of Communications and Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw also supported Caller Name Presentation (CNAP), a feature that would allow telecom users who opt for the service to view the registered name of everyone calling them. Telecom firms and some civil society groups had warned would adversely impact people’s privacy rights, such as marginalized caste groups and people who change their surname after getting married.
Mr. Vaishnaw likened the feature to the right to know who was knocking at the door but added that recommendations favoring CNAP’s introduction by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would be reviewed in detail before further steps are taken.