Google Just Revealed a Brilliantly Simple Trick to Totally Destroy Telemarketers
martyb writes:
Google Just Revealed a Brilliantly Simple Trick to Totally Destroy Telemarketers:
Google just announced it has come up with a new way to thwart telemarketers--heck, to completely destroy their business model. It's brilliantly simple, and it seems like it will actually work.
[...] Here's how Google's solution works--introduced at its hardware event in New York City on Tuesday. It's called simply "Call Screen," and it's built into Android on the Pixel 3.
- When you get a call from a number you don't recognize on an Android device, click "Call Screen" on your device.
- Google Assistant answers the call, with a greeting like, "Hi, the person you're calling is using a screening service from Google, and will get a copy of this conversation. Go ahead and say your name, and why you are calling."
- The caller will either hang up--in which case it's probably not important--or provide an answer, which will then be transcribed and displayed on your screen.
- Then it's up to you to decide whether to answer.
So if the message you receive reads something like, "Bill, this is your wife, I lost my phone, pick up," you'd answer (I hope). But if it's something like, "This is the IRS calling to say we will arrest you for not paying taxes," you can just ignore it, since it's absolutely a scam.
"Just tap the 'Call Screen' button and your phone will answer for you and ask who's calling and why," Google product manager Liza Ma said in announcing the new feature, followed by the eight most important words of her presentation: "You'll never have to talk to another telemarketer."
You can also mark spammy incoming calls as "Spam." That way, if you ever get a call from that number again, it will come with a big red interface reminding you that you've previously pegged the number as suspicious.
That's it. Call Screen won't remove your phone number from telemarketers' lists. But it could ultimately make the entire telemarketing industry unprofitable. If telemarketers can never reach anyone to pitch, they can never close a sale.
All the better to target advertising at you with.
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