[conspire] (forw) [GoLugTech] Terrible customer

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> Here is a totally different strategy for robocalls, which I learned from Consumer Reports.  
> 
> Use https://www.nomorobo.com/

[...]
> It costs nothing.

Except autonomy and privacy.

Forwarding all incoming calls to an outsourced service means that that
service gets all details about who calls your number and when.  Your are
also outsourcing the decision about what calls to send back to your
system.  I think this is an appalling idea.

The telco has that information and ability too, of course, but at least
law and regulations constrain what it's allowed to do and whom it's
permitted to give (or sell) your calling information to.  An outsourced
third-party private company such as Telephone Science Corporation is
subject to no such protections -- and an outsourced third-party private
company _to whom you pay nothing_ is under even fewer protections than
others, because their contractual obligations to you are reduced.

This _Wired_ article discusses the founding of Telephone Science
Corporation d/b/a Nomorobo by one Aaron foss in 2013, and its
functioning using cloud computing services from AWS, Twilio, and others
-- but does not bother to ask or answer where Foss's revenue comes from,
which would answer the obvious question of who his customers are.
(Remember, if you're not paying, you're not the customer, but rather the
product.)

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/guy-found-way-block-robocalls-phone-companies-wouldnt/

Wake up, people.  AWS hosting is expensive.  People pay for it because
they expect to make money.