Privacy Statement

ScamShield Privacy Safeguards

ScamShield is an application that works actively in the background to facilitate the detection, reporting and blocking of potential scam calls, as well as potential scam messages from unknown numbers not in your contact list.

The application does not have access to your contact list or any private data found therein. Further, ScamShield cannot access the contents of SMSes already in your inbox prior to installation of ScamShield, and it cannot access your call log.

We are committed to safeguarding your privacy and we only store the data necessary for the app to function. Further, we align ourselves with the strict privacy parameters set by Apple for iOS, and by Google for Android, and we follow the commercial best practices of data protection and data governance.

For full transparency, the only data we collect and store is:

• Contents of messages that are flagged up by ScamShield as potential scam messages
• The sender ID and/or contact number(s) of the person who sends such potential scam messages

We do not store any other data and there are no identifiers to trace back to any individual users of the application. For the avoidance of doubt, only SMSes that the ScamShield application determines to be potential scams are automatically reported and sent to NCPC, and ScamShield does not have the capability to read any other messages on your phone.

ScamShield works hard to ensure that you are protected from scam messages, however, like all technology, it is not perfect, and some legitimate personal messages may be wrongly classified as potential scam messages. You need not worry, we do not take any further action on these messages, but may use them to train the algorithm to better recognize which messages are scam and which messages are not. If you feel that a message was wrongly classified as scam, you may write in to us at scamshield@ncpc.org.sg and we can permanently delete it on our system for you.

NCPC may share the contents of such potential scam messages with the Singapore Police Force (SPF) for their investigations. The SPF may, upon the conclusion of investigations, recommend to blacklist numbers that are involved in illegal activities. The SPF may also work with the Ministry of Communications and Information (“MCI”) for further investigations, if necessary. All information will be kept strictly confidential for the purposes of such investigations.

If you feel that your number might have been blocked as a scam number by ScamShield, you may write in to scamshield@ncpc.org.sg. This is subject to the conclusion of investigation, if any, by the Singapore Police Force regarding your number.

Tailoring Your Experience

Users may, at their full discretion, turn off any or all of the features of ScamShield on their devices. By going to the device settings, you can turn off the automatic filtering and reporting of scam messages, the automatic blocking of calls from scam numbers, and you can even turn off push notifications on the latest scam typologies. By doing so, you acknowledge that your user experience may be affected and the application may not function as intended.

Reporting unknown numbers via ScamShield

Users can report unknown or unsolicited numbers through ScamShield by providing the source number and text message.