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This really shows the importance of apples hide my email feature. I’ve been using it where ever possible. However, I think I might go back through my online acc

This really shows the importance of apples hide my email feature. I’ve been using it where ever possible. However, I think I might go back through my online accounts and make sure I’ve got it setup. Generally, my phone number has been with spam centres for a while now. I’m not changing it, because it’s so much friction to change it. Right now, I hardly ever take calls because of the massive spam influx. I’m not sure getting a new number will fix this because they cycle numbers and you may just get the spam from a different person. Right now my phone is pretty good at blocking most spam I get through the phone. Not sure how it does this..

cm2187 4y ago
If you hide your email but can't hide your phone number and companies like twitter or google will not let you create an account without, that does nothing to your privacy.
- kaba0 4y ago
  We need a phone number v6 as well, with vastly more possible entries. Having hide my phone number would be a great service.
  - coev 4y ago
    You just described what email addresses have turned into
sangnoir 4y ago
> Right now, I hardly ever take calls because of the massive spam influx. Perhaps Apple ought to follow Google into the AI-assistant-powered call screening business.
- RandomWorker 4y ago
  I feel like it’s already doing this but I’ve set it up in a weird way. I’ve changed my notifications to make a sound when it’s from my contact list ( or can be found in a footer in an email inlever received) and else it will be silent. I hardly ever get an unknown important call that doesn’t fall in those categories. This has me not picking up the phone for spam calls, but I hardly ever miss an important call. There are other things I’ve setup that I don’t want to go into because they can be solved by the spam callers and I’d like to keep it a secret ;)
Insanity 4y ago
Unrelated, but I had no idea how bad spam calls were until moving to Canada I had a total of maybe 5 spam calls in 30 years in Belgium. Meanwhile I get 5 per week in Canada. Absolutely insane :/ Edit: wording
- davidhariri 4y ago
  Canadian and can confirm. It is insane, Insanity.
- TylerE 4y ago
  Move to the US and get 5 per day!
  - shellfishgene 4y ago
    I don't get why this is the case, surely there must be a huge majority that hates those calls and wants them to stop? Is there some sort of political lobbying that prevents effective laws from being passed?
    - geysersam 4y ago
      I'd also imagine spam calls getting less effective when you get used to them. But maybe that's not the case?
      - TylerE 4y ago
        It’s actually a positive feedback cycleZ those who still answer the phone are more likely To be easy victims.
    - guillem_lefait 4y ago
      There is lobbying indeed, the leverage being the call-center jobs. In France for example, this activity was under scrutiny for decades (2014: https://www.lemonde.fr/vie-quotidienne/article/2014/02/12/demarchage-telephonique-le-lobby-des-centres-d-appels-a-gagne_6003724_5057666.html https://www.lemonde.fr/vie-quotidienne/article/2014/02/12/de..., 2022: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/internet/telephonie/demarchage-telephonique-une-nouvelle-reglementation-insuffisante-regrette-la-clcv_5417347.html https://www.francetvinfo.fr/internet/telephonie/demarchage-t...), and even if the law is now more restrictive than before : - no week-end call - calls from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 8pm - you can be included in bloctel, a "do not call me list" it still leave room for this activity. Almost all these jobs will probably be replaced by AI in a near future, so the main leverage will disappear and ...
323 4y ago
> This really shows the importance of apples hide my email feature But what if Apple gets hacked? They still know your real email, right?
- Ensorceled 4y ago
  So you’re saying Apple AND dozens of other companies, most of those with worse security, having my email address is JUST AS BAD as ONLY Apple having my email address?
- RandomWorker 4y ago
  Technically I could setup my email on apple as another fake email that redirects to the real email, and build a wild system of multiple proxies.
irthomasthomas 4y ago
My strategy is to answer every call but remain silent. 9/10 times they hang up after 2 seconds. The remainder are 50/50 real calls and manual spam calls. My assumption is that the robo dialers are recording the success or failure, and if you answer quickly but stay silent, that's some kind of failure. I've done this for a few years and I feel like I get less spam than I used to. Looking at my call log, it looks like I've had less than 5 spam calls in December.
- kibwen 4y ago
  More effective would be to have a button I can tap in the phone app labeled "waste this person's time", which would automatically attach the caller to an AI designed to maximize the amount of time the caller wastes on each call.
  - withinboredom 4y ago
    I once made a website where you could enter two phone numbers on. It would call A with B’s caller ID and B with A’s caller ID. After the call it would send an sms/call from the service explaining what happened and they could consent to release the recording for the pranker to listen to. It was funny to have Pizza Hutt and McDonald’s both think they’d called each other. Or two people standing right next to each other. I nearly got in quite a bit of trouble when someone pranked two high level people in the military, and they decided to have a conversation they probably shouldn’t have had on personal cell phones. It was fun while it lasted… but I wonder if something like this could work for spam calls. Basically instead of forwarding to voicemail, have it route to some pre recorded messages you make “yeah” “hello” “I didn’t hear that, can you say that again” and loud background noises playing. Then it can send you the recording as your “voicemail”. Could be fun.
  - evan_ 4y ago
    You’ve described Lenny (well, without the AI) https://www.lennytroll.com/ https://www.lennytroll.com/ 1 (347) 514-7296
    - 4y ago
michaelbrooks 4y ago
For anyone not using Apple devices, DDG has email generation built into their browser plugin. I'm not sure if it's in their broswer app, but I'm sure they will add the feature.

cm2187 4y ago

If you hide your email but can't hide your phone number and companies like twitter or google will not let you create an account without, that does nothing to your privacy.

kaba0 4y ago
We need a phone number v6 as well, with vastly more possible entries. Having hide my phone number would be a great service.
- coev 4y ago
  You just described what email addresses have turned into

sangnoir 4y ago

> Right now, I hardly ever take calls because of the massive spam influx. Perhaps Apple ought to follow Google into the AI-assistant-powered call screening business.

RandomWorker 4y ago
I feel like it’s already doing this but I’ve set it up in a weird way. I’ve changed my notifications to make a sound when it’s from my contact list ( or can be found in a footer in an email inlever received) and else it will be silent. I hardly ever get an unknown important call that doesn’t fall in those categories. This has me not picking up the phone for spam calls, but I hardly ever miss an important call. There are other things I’ve setup that I don’t want to go into because they can be solved by the spam callers and I’d like to keep it a secret ;)

Insanity 4y ago

Unrelated, but I had no idea how bad spam calls were until moving to Canada I had a total of maybe 5 spam calls in 30 years in Belgium. Meanwhile I get 5 per week in Canada. Absolutely insane :/ Edit: wording

davidhariri 4y ago
Canadian and can confirm. It is insane, Insanity.
TylerE 4y ago
Move to the US and get 5 per day!
- shellfishgene 4y ago
  I don't get why this is the case, surely there must be a huge majority that hates those calls and wants them to stop? Is there some sort of political lobbying that prevents effective laws from being passed?
  - geysersam 4y ago
    I'd also imagine spam calls getting less effective when you get used to them. But maybe that's not the case?
    - TylerE 4y ago
      It’s actually a positive feedback cycleZ those who still answer the phone are more likely To be easy victims.
  - guillem_lefait 4y ago
    There is lobbying indeed, the leverage being the call-center jobs. In France for example, this activity was under scrutiny for decades (2014: https://www.lemonde.fr/vie-quotidienne/article/2014/02/12/demarchage-telephonique-le-lobby-des-centres-d-appels-a-gagne_6003724_5057666.html https://www.lemonde.fr/vie-quotidienne/article/2014/02/12/de..., 2022: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/internet/telephonie/demarchage-telephonique-une-nouvelle-reglementation-insuffisante-regrette-la-clcv_5417347.html https://www.francetvinfo.fr/internet/telephonie/demarchage-t...), and even if the law is now more restrictive than before : - no week-end call - calls from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 8pm - you can be included in bloctel, a "do not call me list" it still leave room for this activity. Almost all these jobs will probably be replaced by AI in a near future, so the main leverage will disappear and ...

323 4y ago

> This really shows the importance of apples hide my email feature But what if Apple gets hacked? They still know your real email, right?

Ensorceled 4y ago
So you’re saying Apple AND dozens of other companies, most of those with worse security, having my email address is JUST AS BAD as ONLY Apple having my email address?
RandomWorker 4y ago
Technically I could setup my email on apple as another fake email that redirects to the real email, and build a wild system of multiple proxies.

irthomasthomas 4y ago

My strategy is to answer every call but remain silent. 9/10 times they hang up after 2 seconds. The remainder are 50/50 real calls and manual spam calls. My assumption is that the robo dialers are recording the success or failure, and if you answer quickly but stay silent, that's some kind of failure. I've done this for a few years and I feel like I get less spam than I used to. Looking at my call log, it looks like I've had less than 5 spam calls in December.

kibwen 4y ago
More effective would be to have a button I can tap in the phone app labeled "waste this person's time", which would automatically attach the caller to an AI designed to maximize the amount of time the caller wastes on each call.
- withinboredom 4y ago
  I once made a website where you could enter two phone numbers on. It would call A with B’s caller ID and B with A’s caller ID. After the call it would send an sms/call from the service explaining what happened and they could consent to release the recording for the pranker to listen to. It was funny to have Pizza Hutt and McDonald’s both think they’d called each other. Or two people standing right next to each other. I nearly got in quite a bit of trouble when someone pranked two high level people in the military, and they decided to have a conversation they probably shouldn’t have had on personal cell phones. It was fun while it lasted… but I wonder if something like this could work for spam calls. Basically instead of forwarding to voicemail, have it route to some pre recorded messages you make “yeah” “hello” “I didn’t hear that, can you say that again” and loud background noises playing. Then it can send you the recording as your “voicemail”. Could be fun.
- evan_ 4y ago
  You’ve described Lenny (well, without the AI) https://www.lennytroll.com/ https://www.lennytroll.com/ 1 (347) 514-7296
  - 4y ago

michaelbrooks 4y ago

For anyone not using Apple devices, DDG has email generation built into their browser plugin. I'm not sure if it's in their broswer app, but I'm sure they will add the feature.