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Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

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Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#321

Post by wittedhaddock »

meetuu wrote: post #98
wittedhaddock wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi meetuu, thanks very much for your thoughtful response. I totally can relate to your desire for that feature and I hope you do not feel ashamed for it. Your phone is a personal device, and it ought to exist to serve your personal preferences so that you may live the best possible life with the thing (toleration or enjoyment)! I think it can be confusing now, that they have become so impersonally social, that we can…

hi again james, the problem with phone abuse became apparent, so long ago that i cant even remember. my wife bought a smartphone for me to use and it took less than a week for me to begin raging. the greatest peeves involved a "certain browser corporation" baking in thier browser, and requireing a sign in to a "G / G+ account" the lack of controll over basic functions, and camera use. It seemed that every time i want…

Hey Meetuu, I'm happy you've been able to find and fashion yourself a solution to these problems you've experienced. I worry about the people who agree with you, but who might not be smart enough to realize it, and instead choose to acquiesce to the mainstream pull of sterile veneer throwing up lowercase I prepends all over the place. If I comment back here in a few months, or years, will you receive my notification? I would like to give you updates and receive more of your constructive criticism as we move forward :)

Maybe you are a fossil, how could I know, but we've figured out how to fashion literal fossils into the black goop that's brought the entire world this far... fossils of all kinds must have a lot of potential!

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#322

Post by wittedhaddock »

uberduber wrote: post #149
wittedhaddock wrote: post #62

My name is James, I work for Community Phone, a nationwide cell phone company. Show of hands: if we opened up this feature for you to control this filter for yourself or your loved ones, holding all else constant (price and coverage), would that be sufficient to cause a switch to try out an alternate provider?

Yes, for certain older relatives who are vulnerable to phone scams. I think you should market it that way. I feel like if I just told some of my relatives about it without it being marketed, they would think I'm the one scamming them.

Have your older relatives shown a proclivity for phone scams?

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#323

Post by njarboe »

wittedhaddock wrote: post #318
njarboe wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telephone spam was not much of a problem before unlimited cell phone calling plans. I would love a system to charge people who aren't on my white list an amount of money I determine to call me. I'd probably put it at 10 cents so as to not hurt legitimate callers but basically kill spammers. Warren Buffet might set his to $10 million.

If this system existed, would you be pilling to port your phone number over to us today to try it out, potentially even paying slightly more upfront?

If the coverage and wifi integration was as good as Google Fi and my girlfriend and I can use our Nexus 5 phones, I would definitely do it right now. I would also pay a decent premium over our $35 a month unlimited call/text, $10 Gig data plan.

The easy international hookup feature of Google fi I could give up, although that is pretty sweet. All over Europe my phone would hook up automagically with the local system about 30min after my plane landed.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#324

Post by jenkstom »

So when you call 911 or emergency services the first or second thing you are asked for is your phone number so you can be called back if needed. Trust me... you are NOT going to remember to turn off blocking when things go pear shaped. Obviously it's your own choice, but it could become a life and death issue in rare circumstances.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#325

Post by thrill »

wittedhaddock wrote: post #322
uberduber wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, for certain older relatives who are vulnerable to phone scams. I think you should market it that way. I feel like if I just told some of my relatives about it without it being marketed, they would think I'm the one scamming them.

Have your older relatives shown a proclivity for phone scams?

Oh hell yeah. My elderly mother started buying anything pitched to her before I jumped in and spent six months undoing that damage.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#326

Post by thrill »

smt88 wrote: post #295
wittedhaddock wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome! How long did it take to solve, and for how many years did you have the problem before solving it?

Android just started doing a good job of blocking them one day. I didn't do anything. I had tried Hiya and Jolly Roger Telephone Co, but neither was good enough to be worth the bugs and loss of privacy. I had the problem intermittently for years, but it becamw awful (like 6+ spam calls a day) for two weeks before Google apparently fixed it.

I use the DND of Android Pixel 2. I got 26 calls yesterday that never rang, the majority of which show as local numbers. About half of those left 4 second voicemails. Out of curiosity I turned it off for about 10 minutes. Got the evergreen "you've won a cruise" call.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#327

Post by danShumway »

wittedhaddock wrote: post #250
danShumway wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to derail the overall conversation too much. I was with Verizon from my first phone until I first got a smartphone. I switched over to Fi specifically because I didn't want to deal with Verizon's billing, and because I didn't like the company in general. The low-data approach is really attractive to me -- atm I use less than 500mb a month (sometimes as low as 200-300mb). At that level of usage your price…

We'd love to experiment with you on Librem. If you go through crazy spikes of data usage, we could comp them if you helped us characterize and understand the behavior-- and especially the value you hope you procure by way of privacy. Do you operate your own VPN? Or if not, how do you truly evaluate whether you are solving your problem? What questions would you ask post-Librem and post-VPN adoption whose answers would…

I consider my IP address to be sensitive information, so I wouldn't host a VPN on my home network, and there are advantages in numbers to using a popular service, since you can blend in at least a tiny bit.

I use a 3rd-party VPN (PIA). This is obviously not perfect privacy, since they could be lying about what data they store. That being said, I'm not trying to hide from a government, I'm trying to hide from advertisers, stalkers, and criminals. So even if I can't personally validate that PIA isn't storing any of my data, having my data accessible to a warrant is still better than having it accessible to hundreds of different sites and companies that I 100% already know I don't trust.

I validate actual implementation security by regularly checking what information shows up in requests when I visit sites. There are a couple of tools that help with that online.

Being strict about what data goes where is part of the reason why my data usage is low. It turns out that if you block network access for most apps on a phone by default, data usage just goes down a lot. Apps like Uber and Lyft make a lot of requests, because they are constantly tracking you, so blocking their network access if you have them installed is just a strict all-around win. Even apps that should be good about this like Google Music will sometimes just randomly decide to download things.

Obviously the librem phone is still kind of up in the air, but my game plan assuming it's not a complete disaster is to migrate over to that and fill in any gaps of functionality by just programming whatever features I need. I dunno how voice calls will work. The idea of switching to something more secure than the existing phone system is attractive, but I mentioned above, I'm not sure what it would do to data usage -- I just don't have any basis to make an educated guess.

In general I want my phone to be a very specialized device -- not a dumb phone, but a phone that only ever does what I tell it to.

So a successful migration for me would look like a company:

- with good coverage

- without any horrible terms like arbitration agreements or stealth charges

- that does not sell data, and that is supportive of low data-usage

- that is at least not actively unethical :)

on a device that:

- gives me root access

- makes calls, texts, and browses the web in a secure way

- that is highly geared towards offline availability and low data-usage

- and that doesn't run extra software or do things behind my back

Librem is my hope for the second part, I guess if it crashes and burns I'll look into custom Android roms. I haven't made a list of carriers yet, but from what you say, it sounds like Community Phone should be high up on that list?

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#328

Post by BillinghamJ »

cblades wrote: post #205
BillinghamJ wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite the same thing, but I have my mobile network set up to forward every call to a Twilio number which just states that my number doesn't accept calls. It sends me an SMS so I know someone tried to. It's great. People who do need to call me then will just use FaceTime Audio or WhatsApp calls.

That seems really obnoxious for anyone that has your number. Do you just not give your number out?

I avoid giving it out wherever possible. Some forms require phone numbers, in which case I generally try to enter an obviously-incorrect number.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#329

Post by BillinghamJ »

savrajsingh wrote: post #169
BillinghamJ wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite the same thing, but I have my mobile network set up to forward every call to a Twilio number which just states that my number doesn't accept calls. It sends me an SMS so I know someone tried to. It's great. People who do need to call me then will just use FaceTime Audio or WhatsApp calls.

Interesting. Do you state FaceTime/WhatsApp in the twilio message?

Nope, don't want to encourage it.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#330

Post by uberduber »

wittedhaddock wrote: post #322
uberduber wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, for certain older relatives who are vulnerable to phone scams. I think you should market it that way. I feel like if I just told some of my relatives about it without it being marketed, they would think I'm the one scamming them.

Have your older relatives shown a proclivity for phone scams?

Yes, though some of them already had a proclivity when they were young, it's gotten worse.

Sometimes getting them a prepaid phone with limited minutes, like 100/month or 1000/year, manages to fix it because it stops them from answering calls from unrecognized numbers. I guess the logic is they get upset about spending 4 cents a minute.

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