Review: PrivacyStar BlackBerry App Falls Short

The more we use our cell phones, the more calls we get on them. While most mobile phones have Caller ID, essential identifiers are often missing when a call comes in. PrivacyStar, a Caller ID and call blocking app for BlackBerry and Android phones, promises to fill in the blanks that display when someone calls on your mobile phone.

I find that PrivacyStar, however, still leaves some of those blanks empty. When a call comes in, if the caller isn't in my address book I often continue to see just the phone number. This isn't very helpful in identifying a caller. It could just as easily be a telemarketer as any other caller. It's still too difficult to screen these calls.

The PrivacyStar app description says it displays a caller's real name, just like with Caller ID. But I don't think that's entirely accurate.

This caller name data isn't just delivered automatically -- you still have to work to get it. When a call comes in the first time, your phone displays the number but no other information. After the call you can go into the PrivacyStar app and have it look up a number. With a decent success rate, the app then identifies the caller by name.

Here's where the benefit comes in: You can then take that information and instantly add the contact to your address book. The next time you get a call from that number, it will instantly display the caller's information on the screen. It's helpful, but I wouldn't call that Caller ID in the face of the phone's basic data failing. It's still somewhat after the fact.

If you get a call from a telemarketer or someone you don't want to receive calls from, it's possible to block those calls through PrivacyStar. This is helpful too, but only to a point. When you block the number and that person calls you, the call gets put through, your phone rings for a portion of the first ring, and then the call is disconnected.

I'm not sure this qualifies as "blocking" a number. It still disturbs you when the call comes in, and it can actually be more puzzling than letting the phone ring normally and ignoring the call. At least it's easy to add or remove a caller or particular phone number on the blocked list.

Once you identify a telemarketer or other commercial caller you don't want to hear from, you can also use PrivacyStar to file a complaint to the Do Not Call registry. That may be the app's biggest benefit.

PrivacyStar offers a free seven-day trial. After that there's a monthly subscription fee with annual and semi-annual pre-payment discounts. While there are some useful features such as adding incoming calls to your address book or registering complaints on telemarketers, I think I'm better off using the tools at my disposal to carry out those functions.

And for the most part, those "tools" are my own fingers -- since I can enter the information in my address book and disconnect calls from a telemarketer, too.

Note: The review of the PrivacyStar app was conducted using a BlackBerry on the Verizon Network. Since publishing the review PrivacyStar contacted me with the following statement:

"We have a lot of success and positive feedback with the Caller ID feature, but due to certain networks not allowing dual data channels, it does not work on Verizon without a Wi-Fi network and does not work on older BlackBerry's."