idk I think this is a red herring. You have to ensure the technology itself isn't so susceptible to hacking. Gmail goes a long way to do this and Google is a technology company that helps other companies with their tech. Hmm, I wonder who can help?
US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
71–80 of 223 posts
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#72I'm actually wondering if I should shut down text messages and phone calls coming from unknown numbers. What would I lose? Basically restaurants calling me for a reservation or something but what else? Everybody I know uses WhatsApp now.
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#73It is unfortunate that the cellular companies have allowed their core product (voice calls) to be so devalued that they need to be forced to solve this problem instead of just doing it naturally. The carriers are clearly customer-hostile, as this is really a very solvable problem. Instead, we now are moving to alternate mechanisms to manage audio calls (eg: Signal, Whatsapp, Facebook, etc.). My wide-open Verizon cell…
>My wide-open Verizon cell-phone number is my least preferred method of contact by far, due to the fact that I cannot trust that unknown numbers are high-value incoming calls. I thought it was a legal requirement for phone network operators to leave phone numbers accessible to all, and hence their inability to effectively fight spam. Otherwise, what would stop the situation from becoming like email, where email is mo…
There is nothing preventing them from providing users with more granular call-rejection controls. Their networks need to be "accessible" on the incoming call side, but that does not mean as a customer I should be forced to have every call intended for my number to be routed through to my phone.
An iptables concept with a user friendly UI would address much of this problem, particularly if we could filter on useful call origination data, or lack thereof.
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#74Some weeks ago I broke my iPhone and had it replaced. During the process I had to get re-authorized with Verizon. They tried to call my partner to get her permission, since she's the account owner. Of course she never picked up the phone, because it was from an unknown caller. The irony is incredible: the literal phone company cannot use their own product to contact their own customers, because they have let that pro…
My wife had to drive all the way back home from the phone store recently because I wouldn't pick up my phone for this exact reason.
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Yes, I’m happy to lose all calls that come via VoIP At that point, why not just block everything other than contacts?
Because lots of legitimate callers to me are located in the US, calling from a cell phone or landline, and I don't have them in my contacts. For instance, contractors coming to do work on the house may be calling from any number of cell phones, or people buying things from Craigslist. For Craigslist, if I were to filter out all the non-US originating calls and texts, would probably result in all the spam being droppe…
Seems like maybe a good business would be listing peoples known numbers and making a caller ID app that it outside the carriers’ control that relies on … I dunno a web of trust and crowdsourced data and reputation?
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#76This spring I was applying for jobs so I answered my phone for more unknown numbers than usual. This has lead to a huge increase in spam calls that I receive on a daily basis and Google Phone's spam filter isn't strict enough for my liking (not to mention no longer available since I'm running GrapheneOS). If you're an Android and Tasker user you can take matters into your own hands and set Tasker as your call screen…
I totally expect this will be fairly effective, because there aren't any major forces pushing against.
- It's a simple technical problem to identify potential spammers. There are clear patterns & habits of robocallers to id them.
- It's fairly simple to confirm spam/scams by pretending to be a target.
- Scam spam calls, though profitable, are relatively isolated and any public support will make them easier to trace. So we aren't facing huge lobby pressure to oppose the nearly universal support for spam reduction.
So it's really just a matter of allocating the resources to do something, which is exactly what this is.
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
>My wide-open Verizon cell-phone number is my least preferred method of contact by far, due to the fact that I cannot trust that unknown numbers are high-value incoming calls. I thought it was a legal requirement for phone network operators to leave phone numbers accessible to all, and hence their inability to effectively fight spam. Otherwise, what would stop the situation from becoming like email, where email is mo…
What does “accessible to all” mean in this context? Why do I in Europe get almost zero spam calls or text while in the US it seems like a plague?
Because you have a functioning government.
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#78It is unfortunate that the cellular companies have allowed their core product (voice calls) to be so devalued that they need to be forced to solve this problem instead of just doing it naturally. The carriers are clearly customer-hostile, as this is really a very solvable problem. Instead, we now are moving to alternate mechanisms to manage audio calls (eg: Signal, Whatsapp, Facebook, etc.). My wide-open Verizon cell…
>My wide-open Verizon cell-phone number is my least preferred method of contact by far, due to the fact that I cannot trust that unknown numbers are high-value incoming calls. I thought it was a legal requirement for phone network operators to leave phone numbers accessible to all, and hence their inability to effectively fight spam. Otherwise, what would stop the situation from becoming like email, where email is mo…
> I thought it was a legal requirement for phone network operators to leave phone numbers accessible to all...
If only they were required to use caller ID to reliably tell us who is calling...
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#79My phone number is a robocall magnet like everyone else's, its the main reason I gave up a land line too. I only need it because so many sites require sending text messages for authentication (esp password resets). Fix authentication I am freed from phones.
Re: US Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
#80Some weeks ago I broke my iPhone and had it replaced. During the process I had to get re-authorized with Verizon. They tried to call my partner to get her permission, since she's the account owner. Of course she never picked up the phone, because it was from an unknown caller. The irony is incredible: the literal phone company cannot use their own product to contact their own customers, because they have let that pro…
All the negative comments are focusing on the old-school providers, but it is worth noting that I get multiple daily spam calls on Google Fi service also.