4 ms·

I don't see why we have to make the names of phone number owners publicly available or even available to callees. We need to to remove the ability to spoof the

by shkkmo 7y ago

I don't see why we have to make the names of phone number owners publicly available or even available to callees. We need to to remove the ability to spoof the calling number and we need to to require phone companies to penalize and terminate numbers that get reported for making spam calls. Edit: My mistake, caller ID actually refers to the system that sends the phone number (and optionally the name) of the callar. The legislation that was passed doesn't se to prohibit the caller from blocking caller ID or even from spoofing the number, it requires phone companies to verify that number and notify the caller of it can't be verified. It also increases penalties and enforcement options/mandates against illegal robocallers and scammers

dredmorbius 7y ago
As someone who's relatively well-described by this article as having ... largely shifted my viewpoints, I both agree that the privacy concerns for callers are real, but also have a hard time sorting out how any identity system that doesn't accurately reflect the calling number to the recipient, would work. Alternatives might be for telcos to track caller reputation, or for there to be an additional trust/verification step for certain cases. For individual call recipients, that's the general problem currently. In the case of businesses, there are generally two problems introduced by Caller ID (or its lack): 1. Filtering out robocalls and spam / scam calls. 2. Preserving the privacy of other callers. For toll-free numbers, the caller's identity (or at least number) has long been available, ostensibly for billing purposes, but as a bit of tracking and marketing data was also a key selling point of such systems. Yes, you're paying for the call, but you're gaining valuable (to you, if not the caller) marketing data. When Caller ID systems first went into place, that tracking information was a concern. Note that Caller ID blocking (an actual service) did not apply to 800 / toll-free numbers: https://www.verizonwireless.com/businessportals/support/faqs/FeaturesandOptionalServices/faq_caller_id_block.html#item2 https://www.verizonwireless.com/businessportals/support/faqs... Discussion of privacy issues here: https://www.mightycall.com/blog/protecting-privacy-caller-id/ https://www.mightycall.com/blog/protecting-privacy-caller-id...
- wl 7y ago
  > Note that Caller ID blocking (an actual service) did not apply to 800 / toll-free numbers: Not quite. Caller ID blocking works on toll-free numbers. The issue is that toll-free numbers have access to another system, ANI, which provides the originating phone number. It's also possible to get ANI on non-toll-free lines if you're willing to pay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_identification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_identificatio...
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    Thanks.

by shkkmo 7y ago

dredmorbius 7y ago

As someone who's relatively well-described by this article as having ... largely shifted my viewpoints, I both agree that the privacy concerns for callers are real, but also have a hard time sorting out how any identity system that doesn't accurately reflect the calling number to the recipient, would work. Alternatives might be for telcos to track caller reputation, or for there to be an additional trust/verification step for certain cases. For individual call recipients, that's the general problem currently. In the case of businesses, there are generally two problems introduced by Caller ID (or its lack): 1. Filtering out robocalls and spam / scam calls. 2. Preserving the privacy of other callers. For toll-free numbers, the caller's identity (or at least number) has long been available, ostensibly for billing purposes, but as a bit of tracking and marketing data was also a key selling point of such systems. Yes, you're paying for the call, but you're gaining valuable (to you, if not the caller) marketing data. When Caller ID systems first went into place, that tracking information was a concern. Note that Caller ID blocking (an actual service) did not apply to 800 / toll-free numbers: https://www.verizonwireless.com/businessportals/support/faqs/FeaturesandOptionalServices/faq_caller_id_block.html#item2 https://www.verizonwireless.com/businessportals/support/faqs... Discussion of privacy issues here: https://www.mightycall.com/blog/protecting-privacy-caller-id/ https://www.mightycall.com/blog/protecting-privacy-caller-id...

wl 7y ago
> Note that Caller ID blocking (an actual service) did not apply to 800 / toll-free numbers: Not quite. Caller ID blocking works on toll-free numbers. The issue is that toll-free numbers have access to another system, ANI, which provides the originating phone number. It's also possible to get ANI on non-toll-free lines if you're willing to pay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_identification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_identificatio...
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Thanks.