33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981Copyright © 2015 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.The Telecom Digest for Jun 26, 2015
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| Do we not all know that the cause of our casualties is the vicious intermeddling of too many of the citizens of the Northern States with the constitutional rights of the Southern States, cooperating with the discontents of the people of those states? Do we not know that the disregard of the Constitution, and of the security that it affords to the rights of States and of individuals, has been the cause of the calamity which our country is called to undergo? And now, war! |
| Franklin Pierce |
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| Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2015 14:24:17 -0700 From: Don Y <anonymous@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Robocalls - the next level Message-ID: <mmhrhj$7d2$1@speranza.aioe.org> Hi Bill, On 6/24/2015 9:27 PM, Bill Horne wrote: > I got a robocall this afternoon, and it angered and depressed me. > > Here's how it went: > (Phone rings, I pick up) > (Oh-so-sweet female voice says) "Hello, this is Samantha, is Bill there?" > (I said) "I'm talking to a machine. Samantha, how much is five plus four?" > (Oh-so-sweet female voice says) "I'm sorry, I have a speech problem, > so I'm using this prerecorded system to make it easier to tell you > about [something or other men my age are expected to respond to]. > (I said) "Shame on you! Don't you have any personal pride?!" > (Oh-so-sweet female voice says) [Silence, followed by disconnect]. > > I suppose I could have predicted this: spam, robocalls, and political > hucksterism are all arms races. Every time someone at my level figures > out a countermeasure (such as my micro-Turing-test, above), then the > sleaze merchants up the ante and demand that I put up with their > lawbreaking. I've been trying to sort out effective algorithms to implement an "automated attendant" (imagine a machine that screens calls like a "secretary" would). So you aren't even bothered by a phone ringing! There are a variety of mechanisms that can be used to identify callers KNOWN A PRIORI (CID, speaker recognition, tendered credentials, etc.). So, its relatively easy to block calls from "unknown sources". The bigger problem (as I see it) is handling those callers from whom you may want to receive calls -- but haven't "precleared". E.g., your doctor (or a NEW doctor!) calling to remind you of an appointment; the automated phone system at the local library calling to remind you of an overdue book; etc. Some of these you can recognize "in hindsight": "Ah, I need to add the CID of my MD to my whitelist!" (how likely is a robocaller to know that they can bypass your screen if they happen to know the CID of your particular MD??) Others aren't quite so easy to address (your sister's neighbor calling to tell you that she's been rushed to the hospital...) |
| Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2015 01:05:16 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Robocalls - the next level Message-ID: <mmimft$tu$1@dont-email.me> On 6/25/2015 5:24 PM, Don Y wrote: > I've been trying to sort out effective algorithms to implement an > "automated attendant" (imagine a machine that screens calls like > a "secretary" would). So you aren't even bothered by a phone ringing! There are several obstacles to designing "smart" telephone answering machines. Just off the top of my head - * The person I want to talk to at 2PM on Sunday might not be welcome at 9AM on Monday. * It's almost impossible to design a workable whitelist without knowing the phone numbers that will be allowed. Predictive algorithms will always fail due to special circumstances, and you mentioned the important ones. * Blacklists aren't viable, since CID is so easy to forge. * There's no way to implement a "one size fits all" solution, because the spam^h^h^h^h telemarketers will just add the codes to their automatic dialers. * Costs will likely be prohibitive. Still, I applaud your effort: it's an arms race, but you just might be the winner if you can market it quickly and well. Good luck. Bill -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) |
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