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Verified by Twilio

twilio.com

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Re: Verified by Twilio

#3

Post by propter_hoc »

Interesting. Wonder if this is going to be a valuable public service in the long run. For sure the monetary incentive is for Twilio to operate this like an "acceptable ads" type shakedown [1], where companies pay Twilio to mark their calls as "valuable information" rather than spam.

Arguably this should be administered by some trusted third party, like EFF.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblock_Plus#Controversies

Re: Verified by Twilio

#5

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

I will install whatever app I need to get this service if it works as advertised. Well done and congrats to the team(s) that worked on this project. It's a travesty that we need a private company to solve this problem, or even that the problem exists in the first place when we as a society could have legislated it away a while ago. However, a fix is a fix.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#6

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

I wonder how many of the spam calls are actually powered by Twilio? Is this an instance of a company trying to make money by getting paid by businesses on one hand to do spam calls, and getting paid by consumers on the other hand to block spam calls?

Re: Verified by Twilio

#7

Post by ufmace »

Well that's cool I guess. But:

1. How are they partnering with all of the device companies to get this on at least most phones? That'd be interesting to know.

2. I guess somebody has to type that intro text. As long as they're doing that, why bother with a normal call? How about just sending the text instead. Or send a text and let me call back for more details when it suits me, either right away or in 10 minutes. It sounds like whoever is sending these probably has a call center or somebody who's job is to sit around and answer the phone when it rings.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#9

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

I'm skeptical for the following reasons:

1. Companies like Twilio largely created the explosion in spam calls by providing extremely cheap, programmable calls, so I'm always a little skeptical when the company selling the poison is also selling the antidote. 2. I really don't like the idea of a single company being responsible for a global verification system for something like phone calls. How are decisions made over what is verified (e.g. the example shows "call purpose" snippets on the screen - if I put something there saying "I have an important flight update", but then my call is "You're only getting free peanuts on your flight, but if you enroll in this MileagePlus card you'll get snack mix too!" who judges that?)

Overall I'd just say with all the consolidation of power with US tech giants I am extremely wary of giving them anything else that could consolidate that power further. I would much prefer an open, federated model.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#10

Post by gregmac »

I was just reviewing my call detail records on my "home" number yesterday, and realizing that the vast majority are spam - we pretty much don't answer that phone. This got me thinking about alternatives to even ringing for any unrecognised numbers, such as an IVR menu that said something like "Hi, we're screening spam, press 4 2 if you're a real person". I'm not sure how that'd be accepted by, for example, the dentist office though. Has anyone set something like that up?

I really hope Twilio is successful with this - it would definitely help, so long as there's a way to avoid abuse.

Just in case someone asks why I still have a "landline": it's VoIP, and I maintain it for basically two reasons:

* We use our VoIP number anytime we have to give a number out as part of signing up for something, rather than cell numbers

* It typically costs me under $25/year, which is actually mostly the 911 fee (oh, and it's an extra way to call 911, if we need to)

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