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Comment by pavel_lishin

6 hours ago

You get actual humans calling you from unknown numbers? Lucky! I only ever get "Chase" from "Home Security Solutions" or whatever.

Yeah, recently I've had quite a few legitimate ones, mostly having to do with home renovations or other transactions.

I like most am deeply unsatisfied with the archaic system though of a basically unchangeable 10-digit number granting permission for anyone to fill up my phone with messages and interrupt me with calls, and hate that I have to ever answer calls from a number I don't know.

I really would like a mutual opt-in system, where you have to pre-establish consent before it's even possible to message or call you, but it seems impossible to get there from here. We can't even get the stupid cell phone companies to strongly enforce that caller ID isn't spoofed!

  • How do you meet people if it's pre-established consent. Eventually someone needs to say 'hi' without the consent of the other person. In all things.

    • In person or online.

      How often have you met people over the phone in the past decade?

      I will say that blocking all unrecognized numbers, though, is an unworkable idea. Any parent or caregiver knows that they need to be able to occasionally receive calls from a number they've never heard of before.