Calling Name Presentation: Explained

Calling Name Presentation (CNAP)

#GS-02 Governance

On November 29, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) floated a consultation paper seeking comments about the potential introduction of a Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) feature.

Calling Name Presentation would provide an individual with information about the calling party similar to ‘Truecaller’ and ‘Bharat Caller ID & Anti-Spam’.
This feature is aimed at helping telephone subscribers are able to make an informed choice about incoming calls and curb harassment by unknown or spam callers.
Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) is already being used in United States of America.
The information could be the person’s name or a company name.
The caller’s name can also be blocked and display “restricted”, or if technical failures occur “not available”.

Since subscribers are not given the name and identity of the caller, they sometimes choose not to answer them believing it could be unsolicited commercial communication from unregistered telemarketers.
This could lead to even genuine calls being unanswered.
This could have an adverse impact on the society and interpersonal relations.
Truecaller’s ‘2021 Global Spam and Scam Report’ revealed that the average number of spam calls per user each month in India, stood at 16.8 while total spam volumes received by its users were in excess of 3.8 billion calls in October alone.
Additionally, there have been rising concerns about robocalls (calls made automatically using IT-enabled systems with a pre–recorded voice), spam calls and fraudulent calls.
Smartphone users, at present, rely on in-built features or third-party apps to mark and tackle spam calls.

While the utility of the scheme is undeniable, the CNAP will have to be aware of the caller’s right to remain anonymous, an essential component of the right to privacy.
The need to anonymity might be because of them being whistle–blowers or employees being harassed.