New Google Service Manipulates Caller-ID For Free

Lauren Weinstein writes to raise an alarm about a new Google service, Click-to-Call. As he describes it, the service seems ripe for abuse of several kinds. One red flag is that Google falsifies the caller-ID of calls it originates for the service. From the article: "Up to now, the typical available avenue for manipulating caller-ID has been pay services that tended to limit the potential for large-scale abuse since users are charged for access. Google, by providing a free service that will place calls and manipulate caller-ID, vastly increases the scope of the problem. Scale matters."

Comments

Heh...

[setirw]

...by that logic, we ought to outlaw SMTP servers, since one can falsify email headers there more easily than this system allows the falsification of caller-id data...