Protection
Ever get a call from a blocked number? Annoying, isn't it? Who's calling you? Who's so fucking special that you only get to find out when you pick up? Wouldn't you like to know who it is before making that decision?
Well, now you can. The service is called TrapCall, and the good news is that technically it's not a scam.
*** TL;DR BEGINS ***
When you call someone, because you are paying for the call, you have the right to make yourself known or unknown as you see fit - in a way, the call you're paying for is your property, and you should be allowed to dictate its terms, no matter how annoying that is for your potential interlocutor. However, there are some cases where this right is removed from you. One of those cases is a freephone number (a 1800 number in the US, and 0800 number in Ireland). When you dial a freephone number, the people you're calling are the ones paying for the call. That means that you cannot block your number to a freephone number. After installing a widget onto your phone, this is what happens:
1. Someone calls you.
2. Trapcall's widget redirects the call to one of their freephone numbers.
3. An automatic machine records the number and sends it back to your phone.
4. The person calling you only hears a ringing tone and nothing else.
5. The whole operation takes about four seconds.
*** TL;DR ENDS ***
I'm not sure how this sort of trick qualifies as "military-level counter-intelligence technology", but it does work. I'd now like to direct your attention to the second box-out in the above screenshot. You'll see that there is a way to defeat this cunning technology, and it's called Spoofcard.
This installs a widget on your phone which allows you to pretend to be calling from any number you like (for instance, you can make your office number show up on your interlocutor's Caller ID when you're calling from the golf course), which completely castrates TrapCall. And of course it's made by the same people. Stomach-churning cynicism? Or good business sense?
This idea of manufacturing a threat just so you can sell someone the defence against that threat is a very American one, although the more astute amongst you will be able to identify some disturbing non-American precedents.
The whole affair put me in mind of a piece great American writer Ambrose Bierce had published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1891, which he called The Ingenious Patriot:
Having obtained an audience of the King an Ingenious Patriot pulled a paper from his pocket, saying:
"May it please your Majesty, I have here a formula for constructing armour-plating which no gun can pierce. If these plates are adopted in the Royal Navy our warships will be invulnerable, and therefore invincible. Here, also, are reports of your Majesty's Ministers, attesting the value of the invention. I will part with my right in it for a million tumtums."
After examining the papers, the King put them away and promised him an order on the Lord High Treasurer of the Extortion Department for a million tumtums.
"And here," said the Ingenious Patriot, pulling another paper from another pocket, "are the working plans of a gun that I have invented, which will pierce that armour. Your Majesty's Royal Brother, the Emperor of Bang, is anxious to purchase it, but loyalty to your Majesty's throne and person constrains me to offer it first to your Majesty. The price is one million tumtums."
Having received the promise of another check, he thrust his hand into still another pocket, remarking:
"The price of the irresistible gun would have been much greater, your Majesty, but for the fact that its missiles can be so effectively averted by my peculiar method of treating the armour plates with a new -"
The King signed to the Great Head Factotum to approach.
"Search this man," he said, "and report how many pockets he has."
"Forty-three, Sire," said the Great Head Factotum, completing the scrutiny.
"May it please your Majesty," cried the Ingenious Patriot, in terror, "one of them contains tobacco."
"Hold him up by the ankles and shake him," said the King; "then give him a check for forty-two million tumtums and put him to death. Let a decree issue declaring ingenuity a capital offence."
Well, now you can. The service is called TrapCall, and the good news is that technically it's not a scam.
*** TL;DR BEGINS ***
When you call someone, because you are paying for the call, you have the right to make yourself known or unknown as you see fit - in a way, the call you're paying for is your property, and you should be allowed to dictate its terms, no matter how annoying that is for your potential interlocutor. However, there are some cases where this right is removed from you. One of those cases is a freephone number (a 1800 number in the US, and 0800 number in Ireland). When you dial a freephone number, the people you're calling are the ones paying for the call. That means that you cannot block your number to a freephone number. After installing a widget onto your phone, this is what happens:
1. Someone calls you.
2. Trapcall's widget redirects the call to one of their freephone numbers.
3. An automatic machine records the number and sends it back to your phone.
4. The person calling you only hears a ringing tone and nothing else.
5. The whole operation takes about four seconds.
*** TL;DR ENDS ***
I'm not sure how this sort of trick qualifies as "military-level counter-intelligence technology", but it does work. I'd now like to direct your attention to the second box-out in the above screenshot. You'll see that there is a way to defeat this cunning technology, and it's called Spoofcard.
This installs a widget on your phone which allows you to pretend to be calling from any number you like (for instance, you can make your office number show up on your interlocutor's Caller ID when you're calling from the golf course), which completely castrates TrapCall. And of course it's made by the same people. Stomach-churning cynicism? Or good business sense?
This idea of manufacturing a threat just so you can sell someone the defence against that threat is a very American one, although the more astute amongst you will be able to identify some disturbing non-American precedents.
The whole affair put me in mind of a piece great American writer Ambrose Bierce had published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1891, which he called The Ingenious Patriot:
Having obtained an audience of the King an Ingenious Patriot pulled a paper from his pocket, saying:
"May it please your Majesty, I have here a formula for constructing armour-plating which no gun can pierce. If these plates are adopted in the Royal Navy our warships will be invulnerable, and therefore invincible. Here, also, are reports of your Majesty's Ministers, attesting the value of the invention. I will part with my right in it for a million tumtums."
After examining the papers, the King put them away and promised him an order on the Lord High Treasurer of the Extortion Department for a million tumtums.
"And here," said the Ingenious Patriot, pulling another paper from another pocket, "are the working plans of a gun that I have invented, which will pierce that armour. Your Majesty's Royal Brother, the Emperor of Bang, is anxious to purchase it, but loyalty to your Majesty's throne and person constrains me to offer it first to your Majesty. The price is one million tumtums."
Having received the promise of another check, he thrust his hand into still another pocket, remarking:
"The price of the irresistible gun would have been much greater, your Majesty, but for the fact that its missiles can be so effectively averted by my peculiar method of treating the armour plates with a new -"
The King signed to the Great Head Factotum to approach.
"Search this man," he said, "and report how many pockets he has."
"Forty-three, Sire," said the Great Head Factotum, completing the scrutiny.
"May it please your Majesty," cried the Ingenious Patriot, in terror, "one of them contains tobacco."
"Hold him up by the ankles and shake him," said the King; "then give him a check for forty-two million tumtums and put him to death. Let a decree issue declaring ingenuity a capital offence."