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Facebook's "Hello" Tells You Who's Calling Before You Pick Up

Posted by samzenpus on from the who-is-it? dept.

Mark Wilson writes: When you receive a call you'll usually see the number of the caller, but this may not be helpful in identifying them before you decide whether to pick up. Facebook's answer to this problem is Hello. This new app comes from the Facebook Messenger team and aims to tell you more about the person getting in touch with you even if you don't have their number saved in your address book. Currently available for Android, the dialer app also allows for the blocking of calls from individuals.

18 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Caller ID by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Innovative!

    1. Re:Caller ID by Zaelath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Even better than that, it's the same "we'll google the number and put up a name" feature built into recent Android builds anyway.. but with "Facebook" instead of "Google". Given their usual rigour, it will probably work acceptably in 30% of cases in the continental US and be worthless outside of that.

      I guess there's a point to the "1532 have blocked this number" except that ALL the people you want to block come from undisclosed numbers/PABX/skype anyway, so ... meh.

      Plus, it has the added bonus of feeding back the phone number of everyone that ever calls you to Facebook, because you know, they're not far enough up your ass now.

    2. Re:Caller ID by Cley+Faye · · Score: 4, Informative

      At least with google it works reasonably well (even outside the US) without having to install another layer of poop in my phone. Was surprised to see my bank name showing up on an incoming call.

    3. Re:Caller ID by unrtst · · Score: 4, Interesting

      (disclaimer: I'm on slashdot so I didn't read the article or fully research this)

      My initial reaction is that this is actually one of the first and greatest uses of social media and phone integration... assuming they're doing what I think they're doing (though, if so, there's some minor privacy leakage).

      If I'm right, then this *should* work just as well around the world as long as people use facebook about as much in those places. I'm assuming, since this comes from their recently touted FB Messenger team, that:
      * Messenger has your FB account (duh)
      * Messenger permissions snag your personal phone number (MANY apps do this, or at least IMIE/etc)
      * When you get a call, their app checks their DB of phone numbers (a great many of which have been verified via the app), and gets the lookup.
      * If there's no lookup, it can then fallback to other lookups (whitepages, google, other DB's and such)

      I really wish this was around a long time ago. The transition to everyone having unlisted phone numbers (ie. cell phones) destroyed a significant feature of Caller ID. This could bring that back a little. Though it's mostly going to be people I probably know already, this would be great any time you lose your address book somehow, and you can stop adding folks to your address book just so you'll know what number it is (ie. keeping your ex in there under some pseudonym just so you know not to answer when craycray2005 calls).

      As far as privacy... if someone is calling me, screw their privacy. They can tell me who they are, or I'm not answering. BTW, if a creditor calls and says something like "Is this Mr So-and-So?", keep replying with stuff like, "Who can I say is calling?", "Who is this?", "Dunno, who are you calling for?". They love that. And definitely tell them that, "your call may be recorded for, wink-wink, quality control purposes on this end as well".

      Anyway... I don't have a problem with this as long as it's simple phone number -> name lookup.

  2. One more reason to abandon FB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Once again, your identity is being used in ways you didn't approve. Now when you call a business or a non-personal contact -- they'll know all about you.

    1. Re:One more reason to abandon FB by NMBob · · Score: 3, Funny

      I wonder if it will also blurt out what you were going to say, but decided not to, like their textual messaging system?

  3. Good reason not to tell FB by ugen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is yet another reason not to give Facebook your phone number (or any other real/valuable personal information)
    Also, not sure about other people, but for callers who didn't make their name private I see the name on my iPhone (not that it matters).

  4. Ship. Sailed. by rmdingler · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Caller ID itself has taken a sharp face plant, IMHO, what with the ability of telemarketers to disguise their true origins with a local cover number. It's possible the Facebook has maximized its ability to innovate, and this is all that's left to go on about.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  5. Repeating the failings of LinkedIn? by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 2

    Didn't LinkedIn get in trouble for doing this a while back? They ended up mining everyone's address books and then leaking that data out to anyone and everyone based on received calls? What are the privacy controls on this?

  6. Hello, I want the history of your phone calls by NotInHere · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is nothing more than facebook wanting phone call data. The advantage for users is almost nonexistent. Its the modern way of stealing (or as they put it in their shiny presentations "harvesting") data.

  7. Re:Back to the future by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Have you been paying attention lately?

    The scammers and spammers have started making the call display look like a number which is similar to the one they're calling. The first six digits the same as your own number.

    I wouldn't trust the call display at all, because it's pretty much fake unless you know exactly who is calling. Because the corporations who started off using these call centers got exemptions to be able to spoof it, caller ID is now almost essentially useless.

    Of course, I'd trust Facefuck to be on my phone about as far as I could throw Zuckerburg, because I know damned well they're a bunch of greedy assholes I don't trust at all.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  8. Re:Back to the future by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because the corporations who started off using these call centers got exemptions to be able to spoof it,

    Corporations who run telemarketing call centers didn't have to get an exemption to spoof calling number id services, they simply used the existing mechanisms available to all users of bulk phone services.

    Corporations who have their own PBXs have always had a need to be able to specify the calling number ID of their outgoing calls. Those who have multiple outgoing lines often want to have a unified, common outgoing caller id sent that points to their main incoming number.

    As for Facebook being able to help out, that's only for people who have told Facebook their phone number. If you're stupid enough to do that, you deserve to have all your data sent to anyone you call. The solution is simple: don't call people you don't want to know who is calling.

    And here's another tidbit: you think you suppress your caller id when you call a business, but if you call their toll-free number they get it anyway. They're paying for the call, they get the data.

  9. Excellent, this will force Google.. by goruka · · Score: 2

    This will be a good excuse to force Google to allow users to revoke certain app permissions. It will eventually happen and this aids to it..

  10. Facebook tells you all right by kuzb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But not before storing this metadata along with your present location and any other personal information they can get you to give them access to.

    When will people learn?

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
  11. So, the same as TrueCaller and 100 similar apps? by balajeerc · · Score: 2

    Only, worse. Since telemarketers probably don't bother creating a FB page. So FB won't notify you of that. TrueCaller gathers information by uploading your contacts list to their servers. And doing the same from millions of people who use. Is this a crazy breach of privacy - sure, it is - but so is everything about Facebook. Telemarketers hate it since once a few of report it as a spam call, it shows up with a warning saying as much when the same person calls someone else. Oh, and you can block that number too.

  12. Re:Back to the future by oobayly · · Score: 4, Informative

    Our PBX lets us specify the Caller ID for any extension. However if we attempt to use a number not in our DDI range BT will clip the Caller ID to our main number. Any legitimate telecoms provider should do this to prevent spoofing. The same goes for *some* of the SIP providers I've talked to - they need proof of ownership of the DDI before they will allow you to set the Caller ID, however I imagine it's fairly easy to get around.

  13. Re:Back to the future by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "It doesn't work on an iPhone, third party apps aren't allowed to steal information from you typically on iOS where as that is on by default on Android and its completely acceptable to steal your data."

    That is by far the most ridiculous thing I have read all month.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  14. Already exists by redback · · Score: 2

    This already exists and its called Caller ID by Google, and its a standard Android feature.