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Ah, this brings back memories. I signed up for Caller ID when it was first available to me in 1994. Not only did I have the regular caller ID box, but thanks to

Ah, this brings back memories. I signed up for Caller ID when it was first available to me in 1994. Not only did I have the regular caller ID box, but thanks to a fancy modem that could interpret the caller ID encoding, I rigged a daemon to send a zephyrgram instant message with the caller's name and number to my Sun workstation at work. I distinctly remember people being a bit unnerved when I'd call them back and say "Hey, I saw you called...". My girlfriend at the time was particularly disturbed that I'd know she called even when she didn't leave a message. People were used to treating unanswered calls as if they never happened, and felt a bit violated when you knew that they had been investing effort into contacting you instead of making a casual "what's up?" call. It's very strange to think about such attitudes in the context of modern communication. :)

js2 7y ago
Zephyrgram - that's a name I've not heard in a long time. For those unfamiliar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(protocol) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(protocol)
friedegg 7y ago
This reminds me of the age of Call Back Verifiers for BBS identity checking.
- cydonian_monk 7y ago
  Wow. Now _that's_ something I've not even thought about in decades. Those were irritating when trying to BBS in somewhere at 2AM and you didn't want to wake the whole house. (Not many of us had dedicated data lines then.) I remember one of my local BBSes had a busted call back that would occasionally call multiple times or after a random (and often very long) delay. So much of that era is just forgotten now (and that's not necessarily a bad thing...).
  - datavirtue 7y ago
    I unplugged the phones and turned off my modem speaker.
4ntonius8lock 7y ago
Not that different than consumers using tracking pixels to see open time/place. I use streak CRM for gmail and have learned to not mention the details of what I see so as to not freak people out. The funny thing is, I can see 0.00001% of what the commercial trackers can see, but people don't bat an eye on that. They allow images to appear on emails by default, they don't block javascript, they keep all the tracking cookies no their machine, etc.
- scarejunba 7y ago
  Gmail proxies image downloads, right? And it doesn't wait for actual email open so how do you do open time / place?
  - 4ntonius8lock 7y ago
    Not sure, as I said, I use streak CRM. I know they use pixel image based tracking. Exactly how they do it, I'm not 100% sure. I know you need to give it 'access' within your gmail, so I'm guessing it's something within gmails ability to 'play nice' with apps (API based? not sure) - Though your comment has now got me curious.
- tejtm 7y ago
  Consumers are not the ones using tracking pixels
  - 4ntonius8lock 7y ago
    Consumer here checking in who does use tracking pixels. Yes, I'm a consultant, but all my emails go out with tracking, it's how I have it set up.
- pweezy 7y ago
  I've been on the receiving end of this from one or two online invitation services (Paperless Post, maybe?). Had a friend say "can you come to my party or what? You're the only one that still hasn't opened the invitation email". I never had to sign up for an account to imagine what the service was doing - showing "opened" stats straight out of Sendgrid or the like. I had a similar reaction - email open tracking is something you assume, by default, that regular individuals can't do. And I found it very invasive, even though I know the same tracking exists on all the non-personal email I received. Since then I've made it a point not to open those invitations until I know I'm ready to respond - since "I never saw the email" is a less harmful conclusion for my snooping friend to draw than "I opened the email and decided not to respond."

js2 7y ago

Zephyrgram - that's a name I've not heard in a long time. For those unfamiliar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(protocol) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(protocol)

friedegg 7y ago

This reminds me of the age of Call Back Verifiers for BBS identity checking.

cydonian_monk 7y ago
Wow. Now _that's_ something I've not even thought about in decades. Those were irritating when trying to BBS in somewhere at 2AM and you didn't want to wake the whole house. (Not many of us had dedicated data lines then.) I remember one of my local BBSes had a busted call back that would occasionally call multiple times or after a random (and often very long) delay. So much of that era is just forgotten now (and that's not necessarily a bad thing...).
- datavirtue 7y ago
  I unplugged the phones and turned off my modem speaker.

4ntonius8lock 7y ago

Not that different than consumers using tracking pixels to see open time/place. I use streak CRM for gmail and have learned to not mention the details of what I see so as to not freak people out. The funny thing is, I can see 0.00001% of what the commercial trackers can see, but people don't bat an eye on that. They allow images to appear on emails by default, they don't block javascript, they keep all the tracking cookies no their machine, etc.

scarejunba 7y ago
Gmail proxies image downloads, right? And it doesn't wait for actual email open so how do you do open time / place?
- 4ntonius8lock 7y ago
  Not sure, as I said, I use streak CRM. I know they use pixel image based tracking. Exactly how they do it, I'm not 100% sure. I know you need to give it 'access' within your gmail, so I'm guessing it's something within gmails ability to 'play nice' with apps (API based? not sure) - Though your comment has now got me curious.
tejtm 7y ago
Consumers are not the ones using tracking pixels
- 4ntonius8lock 7y ago
  Consumer here checking in who does use tracking pixels. Yes, I'm a consultant, but all my emails go out with tracking, it's how I have it set up.
pweezy 7y ago
I've been on the receiving end of this from one or two online invitation services (Paperless Post, maybe?). Had a friend say "can you come to my party or what? You're the only one that still hasn't opened the invitation email". I never had to sign up for an account to imagine what the service was doing - showing "opened" stats straight out of Sendgrid or the like. I had a similar reaction - email open tracking is something you assume, by default, that regular individuals can't do. And I found it very invasive, even though I know the same tracking exists on all the non-personal email I received. Since then I've made it a point not to open those invitations until I know I'm ready to respond - since "I never saw the email" is a less harmful conclusion for my snooping friend to draw than "I opened the email and decided not to respond."