Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Thank you Google (I think)

The robocallers have gotten unbelievably out of control, it's just a complete farce.

At this point, I simply never take a call from a number that isn't in my contacts list. Never. Period.

And don't tell me about the Do Not Call registry. I've added my number to it dozens of times. No relief.

So it's wonderful to see that somebody who might actually be able to do something about the problem is taking real action: Protecting people from illegal robocalls.

It’s difficult for Google to take action against callers because they often use untraceable phone numbers, fake company names, and massive global networks of intermediaries. However, today we’re filing an action in California against one search engine optimization company for making these robocalls and confusing our users. It’s unfortunate when a problem must be addressed in a court of law, but we believe this course of action will protect our users and discourage this practice more broadly.

So, Yay! Google!

On the other hand, it really does freak me out that we've truly gotten to the point where we are now depending on corporations to protect us from attacks, because our government cannot.

That is Not Good.

I don't have the answer. I hope Google can help in this situation. But I also worry about the increasing role that mega-corporations are playing in our personal lives, and the increasing unwillingness of Americans to seeing a role for government to play in protecting citizens from harm.

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