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Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

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Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#161

Post by chime »

redisman wrote: post #115
carlospwk wrote: post #8

I have no idea what a robocall is but I would LOVE a simple notification banner for when someone calls. I rarely get calls these days but when I do, it’s a major annoyance if I’m doing something on my phone. It’s time calls are relegated to the same level of urgency as WhatsApp messages and emails.

I just gotta say it's funny that receiving a phone call on your phone is a major annoyance these days.

I know what you mean but it wasn't funny when I was recording my kid at his first birthday party and got interrupted by a robocall just seconds before he cut the cake. From that day, I've learned to put the phone on DND mode before recording anything memorable.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#162

Post by Rjevski »

TheSoftwareGuy wrote: post #148
timbit42 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use an app called Should I Answer? It uses crowd sourcing to collect robocalling numbers. My phone doesn't even ring for most of the robocalls now, and the ones it misses, I can add to their database so others won't get them.

I've literally been robocalled from my own number before. I don't think this would work

Depends on the carrier. Proper equipment should be like “WTF? This is obviously spoofed” and reject the call but then again the entire telco industry is fucked up.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#164

Post by saagarjha »

hi41 wrote: post #150

The other problem is with using third party navigational apps. While driving the phone app takes up the whole screen completely obscuring the directions. My wife constantly rejects calls because of this and I can’t talk to her!

You can switch apps while in a call.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#165

Post by basilgohar »

intopieces wrote: post #139

I’ve completely turned off notifications for the phone. If someone wants to call me, they either need to use FaceTime (which hasn’t been overrun with spam, yet) or schedule a time with me. I also subscribe a call blocker.

How would someone without an Appke device or AppleID get in touch with you realtime? If all friends and family are already part of the Apple ecosystem, then okay for now, but you also would basically be filtering your communications to only people that fit that description in the future, as well.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#166

Post by Rjevski »

Reason077 wrote: post #62
btilly wrote: post #41

I actually would like a regulatory solution for this. Mandate a way for me to say whether incoming calls were spam. Require my phone company to pay me money every time I get spammed. Allow my phone company to, at their option, proactively block calls from specific upstreams and/or pass the charge to the specific upstreams. Now from those incentives, the fines will naturally follow the upstreams to the source of the s…

”I actually would like a regulatory solution for this.” The UK has a solution. It does actually work, mostly: https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

It doesn’t work. Only honest callers would follow this. In addition, looking up a number in there is paid which is less than ideal. The service itself is already an inconvenience to its “target market” (aka telemarketers or robocallers) so at least you should make it as easy as possible to use it.

I actually worked on a lawful telemarketing operation a few years back (don’t ask - desperate times called for desperate measures) and paying for TPS lookups was both a surprise and a huge problem.

The only reason it seems like it works is because the US is a much juicier market for the scammers so most don’t bother with the UK, but I still see people occasionally getting tech support scams or similar so clearly there’s nothing actually preventing them from spamming the UK - for now it’s just that the US is a bigger fish.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#167

Post by njarboe »

ac29 wrote: post #82
awakeasleep wrote: post #14

"At the telelphony-infrastructure level, it’s a supremely difficult problem that lacks a short-term fix because the underlying protocol is hopelessly insecure." This is only partly true. Technologically the solution is difficult, but it's easy from the social side as carriers can blacklist the smaller carriers that allow this fraud to take place. The real problem is that everyone except the consumer benefits from thi…

There already is a proposed technological solution to this: https://transnexus.com/whitepapers/stir-and-shaken-overview/ The FCC has recently "demanded" US telecoms to implement this [0], but at this point I don't believe there is actually a regulatory requirement to do so. [0] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-354933A1.pdf

How about people in your contact list get to call and text you for free and everyone else has to pay 10 cents? Telecoms definitely have the tech to do such billing. They could even take a cut. 9 cents for me and 1 cent for the telecom. This would solve almost all spam immediately and would be a long term solution.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#168

Post by nikanj »

oh_sigh wrote: post #140
nikanj wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d be happy to have a SPF like framework for calls. The phone number blocks are allocated to companies, and it should be trivial to ensure the incoming call comes from the legitimate holder of the block. Add an authorized user api so you can still use your number in outgoing calls with Skype etc. After number faking is fixed, I can safely ignore all calls from foreign countries and weird area codes.

How do you handle number portability?

We figured out how to move domains from provider to another while still maintaining SPF. I'm sure we can figure out something similar for this.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#169

Post by Rjevski »

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #67
troydavis wrote: post #65

The eventual fix will be adopting ATIS SHAKEN and STIR protocols, which is, very roughly, signed caller ID. The FCC is now demanding it of carriers: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-354933A1.pdf (Background and open letters to carriers: https://www.fcc.gov/document/chairman-pai-demands-industry-a... ) How it works, short version: https://transnexus.com/blog/2017/stop-spoofed-robocalls-with... How it works,…

Apologies for not reading through these links, but does this fix just the caller-id issue, or the routing issue - i.e. routing an SMS to a bad actor?

Just caller ID, and even then it seems like it’s between service providers only - you have to trust your carrier to validate signatures and reject bad/missing ones.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#170

Post by saagarjha »

jchw wrote: post #60

Fwiw, Android actually does do this. When the phone is unlocked, calls show up as a banner. In addition, they added that new call screening option, I've been using it and so far it has worked fairly well. Also, there is some built-in call filtering and third party apps as well, though I have mostly been able to rely on the built-in filtering. Does iOS really not have any options for filtering? I swear last time I had…

iOS has had the ability to block certain numbers for a while. iOS 11 adds IdentityLookup, a framework for blocking unwanted calls and messages.
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