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In 2002, when I got a call on my landline, the Caller ID would show the caller's name (either an individual's name, or their business) without my having to main

by raldi 9y ago

In 2002, when I got a call on my landline, the Caller ID would show the caller's name (either an individual's name, or their business) without my having to maintain any sort of contact list. The phone company would transmit this information to my phone's screen, populated from their own database. I can't understand why an iPhone in 2017 lacks this feature.

bluedino 9y ago
Has nothing to do with the phone. The cell providers don't have, or send the information with the call like your landline phone company does.
- raldi 9y ago
  My cell provider absolutely has my name. And the continued existence of phone books demonstrates that there's still a database of businesses and their phone numbers. Google has this information, too: I can type the name of just about any local business into their web search or maps product and be given their phone number. Apple has it too: I can launch Apple Maps on my iPhone, and it knows all the phone numbers of local businesses. I believe they get this information from Yelp. > The cell providers don't [...] send the information with the call like your landline phone company does. Exactly. Why not?
- ThePadawan 9y ago
  I also believe that this feature has been somewhat deprecated since there is no authentication involved in caller ID at all. That resulted in cold callers camouflaging themselves using either suppressed or incorrect phone numbers, reducing the value of called ID to zero. It's equivalent to someone shouting through your door "Open up, this is the police". You would not do that without a chain or peephole, either.
  - raldi 9y ago
    The value wasn’t zero; even with spoofing, there’s a big difference between “this unknown caller is camouflaging their name to something I don’t recognize” vs “Oh, it’s the dry cleaners; I’d better pick up.”
yes_or_gnome 9y ago
Caller ID was around for quite a while before 2002. It looks like the first companies rolled it out in the late 80's. But, it's funny that you chose 2002 because that's the year when phreakers learned how to spoof the system. It was always theoretically possible because phone companies would make test calls to customers with information like "BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (123)456-7890". In other words, it was obvious that the Caller ID system was trivial to manipulate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing
- raldi 9y ago
  You’re conflating vanilla Caller ID with CNAM (Called ID with Name). The latter didn’t become widespread until the late 90’s.

by raldi 9y ago

bluedino 9y ago

Has nothing to do with the phone. The cell providers don't have, or send the information with the call like your landline phone company does.

raldi 9y ago
My cell provider absolutely has my name. And the continued existence of phone books demonstrates that there's still a database of businesses and their phone numbers. Google has this information, too: I can type the name of just about any local business into their web search or maps product and be given their phone number. Apple has it too: I can launch Apple Maps on my iPhone, and it knows all the phone numbers of local businesses. I believe they get this information from Yelp. > The cell providers don't [...] send the information with the call like your landline phone company does. Exactly. Why not?
ThePadawan 9y ago
I also believe that this feature has been somewhat deprecated since there is no authentication involved in caller ID at all. That resulted in cold callers camouflaging themselves using either suppressed or incorrect phone numbers, reducing the value of called ID to zero. It's equivalent to someone shouting through your door "Open up, this is the police". You would not do that without a chain or peephole, either.
- raldi 9y ago
  The value wasn’t zero; even with spoofing, there’s a big difference between “this unknown caller is camouflaging their name to something I don’t recognize” vs “Oh, it’s the dry cleaners; I’d better pick up.”

yes_or_gnome 9y ago

Caller ID was around for quite a while before 2002. It looks like the first companies rolled it out in the late 80's. But, it's funny that you chose 2002 because that's the year when phreakers learned how to spoof the system. It was always theoretically possible because phone companies would make test calls to customers with information like "BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (123)456-7890". In other words, it was obvious that the Caller ID system was trivial to manipulate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

raldi 9y ago
You’re conflating vanilla Caller ID with CNAM (Called ID with Name). The latter didn’t become widespread until the late 90’s.