Congress Acts, No more Caller ID Spoofing | Hacker News Reader

Congress Acts, No more Caller ID Spoofing

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14 pointsomfut7 comments

I use Google Voice and all unknown numbers do not ring my phone and go straight to voice-mail.

First the do-not-call-registry and then this. 'Bout time they did some good. Now fix the @#$%$% angel funding issue with Dodd's bill.

The "$2.3m" thing is a fabrication — Dodd's bill leaves it up to the SEC to adjust the old figure for inflation as they see fit. The original $1m figure was set by the SEC, not legislation.

This whole 'issue' is like DEATH PANELS for startups, and this community is taking the bait enthusiastically.

Until you reply to this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1276179 I'm afraid I'm going to have to believe what everyone else is saying.

As well as note that the regulatory changes---registration, 120 days, throw it to the states---could easily be much worse than these changes. Which would indeed make the SEC and their equivalents in the states Death Panels for startups. They would decide which get a chance to live and which die stillborn.

Just did so. I had slightly misread the statute (or it's been updated) when this first blew up a few weeks ago, but it doesn't cast any doubt on my comment you're replying to here: the 2.3m figure is bullshit, the SEC is left to update the numbers themselves.

While I don't find the new registration requirements onerous, you're absolutely right that the approval process for those registrations are insane. The 120 day federal approval window is bad enough, but the automatic devolution to the states is going to be a fucking disaster when some state legislature notices its newfound powers.

Unfortunately, everyone's laser-focused on the idea that the pool of small angels could possibly shrink, making it very easy for others to write them off as self-serving whiners (especially when they're inflating their claims). It reads as "shit my old boss won't be able to fund my startup".

This could easily be worse than ACTA. This is basically the first step to making anonymous communication illegal.

Not sure what you mean... incorrect CLI is completely different from withheld CLI - from the bill:

(2) PROTECTION FOR BLOCKING CALLER ID INFORMATION. — Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prevent or restrict any person from blocking the capability of any caller ID service to transmit caller ID information.

Also - there is no such thing as anonymous calling on the PSTN network. Your providers know exactly who called from where - even if the destination doesn't get full set of information. Unless the providers are completely incompetent, there's going to be a way to recreate the whole path based on logs from every interconnected node. (not sure about US laws, but in most countries if police requested that and the provider couldn't produce it, they would be fined)

You can buy voip services from a company in country X too, then send some legit-looking paper saying you're paying bills for the number 001555555555 and in many cases they will be glad to allow you to use it. Then you can continue your scamming. This bill doesn't stop any illegal uses of id spoofing really.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com