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I wonder if it would actually be legal for a phone company to implement a spam filtering service the way an email company can. Phones services are a much more

I wonder if it would actually be legal for a phone company to implement a spam filtering service the way an email company can. Phones services are a much more regulated industry than email is.

dredmorbius 13y ago
Offering tools to put the subscriber in much greater control over their device would (and IMO should) be offered. My frustration is that at present, I cannot do what I want without, take your pick: • Using a dumbphone with at best the ability to block (but not whitelist) specific numbers. • Using a smartphone, with all of the additional privacy invasion concerns involved. • Utilizing a service such as Google Voice, in which all of my phone traffic is routed through yet another NSA surveillance partner (willing or otherwise is left unspecified). • Ditching conventional voice comms for an alternative (which I haven't yet even identified) that actually does offer the filtering tools I'd like. This would also have the effect of greatly limiting my general connectivity, though in the present universe this might not be all bad. My suspicion is that a high-end and/or technical solution which does this will emerge. As either option is selective to generally more attractive and upscale markets, the conventional telephone network (wired and cell) will die: it will be comprised increasingly of down-market subscribers, less attractive to both telcos and others who might be interested in reaching them, and cut off from the NeuPhone network (if it weren't that would itself be a disadvantage of the NeuPhone, though some bridges might in fact persist). It's a similar dynamic to how first AM, then FM radio have increasingly become wastelands as those with means switched first to cassette CD players, then iPhone adapters, as well as satellite and Internet radio. Or Facebook's overtaking of an established social networking market by offering a more attractive network (the in-crowd of Harvard, Ivies, Stanford, and selective colleges for the first few years of the network). Or of broadcast TV's increasing fall in light of both deferred-viewing options through DVRs and increasingly on-demand video content over the Internet -- why accept QVC when you can watch Netflix, Hulu, Vimeo, or even YouTube, bypassing schedules, advertising, and hours of crap?

I wonder if it would actually be legal for a phone company to implement a spam filtering service the way an email company can. Phones services are a much more regulated industry than email is.

dredmorbius 13y ago

Offering tools to put the subscriber in much greater control over their device would (and IMO should) be offered. My frustration is that at present, I cannot do what I want without, take your pick: • Using a dumbphone with at best the ability to block (but not whitelist) specific numbers. • Using a smartphone, with all of the additional privacy invasion concerns involved. • Utilizing a service such as Google Voice, in which all of my phone traffic is routed through yet another NSA surveillance partner (willing or otherwise is left unspecified). • Ditching conventional voice comms for an alternative (which I haven't yet even identified) that actually does offer the filtering tools I'd like. This would also have the effect of greatly limiting my general connectivity, though in the present universe this might not be all bad. My suspicion is that a high-end and/or technical solution which does this will emerge. As either option is selective to generally more attractive and upscale markets, the conventional telephone network (wired and cell) will die: it will be comprised increasingly of down-market subscribers, less attractive to both telcos and others who might be interested in reaching them, and cut off from the NeuPhone network (if it weren't that would itself be a disadvantage of the NeuPhone, though some bridges might in fact persist). It's a similar dynamic to how first AM, then FM radio have increasingly become wastelands as those with means switched first to cassette CD players, then iPhone adapters, as well as satellite and Internet radio. Or Facebook's overtaking of an established social networking market by offering a more attractive network (the in-crowd of Harvard, Ivies, Stanford, and selective colleges for the first few years of the network). Or of broadcast TV's increasing fall in light of both deferred-viewing options through DVRs and increasingly on-demand video content over the Internet -- why accept QVC when you can watch Netflix, Hulu, Vimeo, or even YouTube, bypassing schedules, advertising, and hours of crap?