Truecaller launches Premium Affiliate Partner Programme in South Africa. Truecaller, the global platform for caller identification and spam protection, has officially launched its Truecaller Premium Affiliate Partner Programme in South Africa, opening a new commercial pathway for South African businesses to monetise their existing audiences while offering users a meaningful layer of protection against one of the country's fastest growing digital threats. According to Truecaller data, South Africa recorded 17.47 billion spam calls in the first half of 2026 alone - a figure that reflects the scale and urgency of phone-based fraud facing South African mobile users. Globally, Truecaller flagged 6.9 billion fraud attempts in the first seven month of 2026. The Premium Affiliate Partner Programme is Truecaller's direct response to that demand, enabling local platforms to connect their users with a proven solution while generating a sustainable new revenue stream. How the programme works Partners embed a Truecaller-generated tracking link into their existing user journey. Every Truecaller Premium subscription generated through that link earns the partner a 25% revenue share. There is no product to build, no dedicated sales function required, and no complex technical integration. * Large digital platforms - e-commerce, fintech, media, telcos and consumer apps with established, high-volume user bases. * Agile startups and niche platforms - growing mobile and web platforms with engaged, mobile-first communities, particularly where users regularly interact with unknown callers. The shared qualifying criteria are straightforward: a high-traffic website or mobile app, and a commitment to protecting users from spam, fraud and scam calls. "South Africa has one of the highest rates of mobile phone scam exposure on the continent. This programme enables South African platforms to do something genuinely meaningful for their users while generating a new and sustainable revenue stream from their existing traffic. The demand is already there - partners simply have to offer the solution," says Mmathebe Zvobwo, director of Market Development for South Africa at Truecaller. First local partner: Mzali Truecaller's first South African affiliate partner is Mzali, a Johannesburg-based, education & technology platform connecting schools, teachers and parents. Mzali currently serves more than 50 000 students across 39 schools, with a 95% parent app adoption rate at active schools. Its focus within the partnership is on Truecaller's Premium Family Plan; a natural fit for a platform whose core audience is parents managing school communications and household safety. "Scam calls impersonating schools, fake bursary notifications, phishing messages are constantly being faced by our parents. This partnership means we can offer them something that genuinely helps, while also building a sustainable revenue stream for Mzali," says founder Themba Mbele. Onboarding: four steps, less than one week * Express interest - contact Truecaller via the contact details below. * Vetting - Truecaller conducts a high-level review of the partner's website or app. * User journey session - a brief collaborative session to agree on link placement within the partner's user experience. * Sign up and go live - register on Truecaller's affiliate platform. The partnership is immediately active. Get in touch Interested partners should contact Truecaller via DNA Brand Architects: Tsholofelo Kotsokwane ([email protected] or 072 088 5640).

Nigeria court rules Truecaller's contact data use violates privacy law. A Lagos High Court decision on September 14, 2026 established that an app user's consent to share phone contacts does not cover the data of listed individuals who never engaged with the service. The judgment directly challenges how digital platforms such as Truecaller collect and process third-party information without direct authorization from affected parties. The case centered on Truecaller's practice of accessing phone numbers from users' contacts - even when those contacts had never installed the app or agreed to its terms. The court dismissed the company's claim that a user's permission to upload contact data constituted valid consent for everyone in that list. Under Sections 26 and 65 of Nigeria's Data Protection Act (NDPA), consent must be voluntary, informed, specific, and unambiguous. The ruling clarified that one individual cannot authorize the processing of another's data, particularly when those individuals may not even be aware of Truecaller's existence. Olumide Babalola, chair of the Nigerian Bar Association's Data Protection Committee and lead counsel in the case, emphasized the court's stance: "You cannot use consent by implication or consent by proxy." This directly contradicts an earlier decision, which had ruled that users uploading contacts were the "controllers" of that data, placing responsibility on them - not the platform - to secure consent from listed contacts. The NDPA, which came into effect in June 2023, imposes stricter requirements. Consent must now be tied to explicit purposes, collecting a phone number is distinct from storing it indefinitely or making it searchable through premium features. Truecaller argued that its caller-ID and spam-blocking functions served public safety, but the court rejected this as justification for processing data without individual consent. Court rejects Truecaller's privacy harm claims. The applicants, represented by the Incorporated Trustees of the Data Privacy Lawyers Association, alleged their phone numbers were exposed without consent, leading to unsolicited messages, surveillance risks, and loss of control over their personal information. One applicant testified that a stranger had discovered her identity and number through Truecaller. While the company denied direct data extraction in Nigeria, claiming its servers are based in India, and offered options like disabling the "Enhanced Search" feature or requesting data deletion, the court found these measures inadequate for validating the processing of non-users' data. Babalola highlighted the tension between recognizing privacy breaches and awarding compensation. "What about loss of control over personal data?" he noted. For now, the court has not found sufficient evidence that the applicants had suffered material harm from the disclosure of their numbers. Ruling reshapes data collection for global platforms. The case raises broader implications for companies that rely on contact lists, access to address books or crowdsourced identity databases. Unlike Truecaller, WhatsApp does not publicly expose users' numbers in the same manner, but the principle remains: a user's permission does not extend to others in their contacts. The ruling may prompt regulators and platforms to reassess how they collect, store, and monetize personal data-especially when that data belongs to individuals who never opted in. The Lagos High Court's decision clarifies legal boundaries for processing personal data without explicit consent. Truecaller's reliance on user-provided consent for non-users fails this test, the court concluded, because the company cannot prove those individuals ever agreed to the processing. Legitimate interest falls short without consent. One potential alternative is legitimate interest, permitted under Section 27 of the NDPA. A platform could argue that processing contact data serves a legitimate business or public purpose, such as improving caller identification or combating spam, provided that the interest does not override the rights of the data subjects. However, the court's decision suggests that even if Truecaller's purposes are valid, the absence of individual consent weakens any claim of legitimate interest. The company would need to demonstrate that its processing is necessary and proportionate, meaning no less intrusive alternatives exist and that the benefits outweigh the risks to non-users. The ruling also reinforces the NDPA's principles of data minimization and purpose limitation. Truecaller's practice of collecting, storing, and making searchable phone numbers from non-users violates these rules. The Act requires that data be collected only for specific, explicit, and legitimate purposes and not retained longer than necessary. The court observed that Truecaller's use of contact data extended beyond basic caller identification, including making numbers searchable through premium features, without ensuring non-users had consented to each use. This distinction is legally significant: a user might consent to caller ID but not to having their number indexed in a global database. * Obtain direct consent from non-users, which is impractical at scale, or * Limit processing to only those who have explicitly opted in, reducing the database's utility.