Spam calls, especially those that are automated, have become one of the main problems faced by users and operators. In their eagerness to combat it, a new tool has been shaped that is considered the definitive one for this important fight.
Almost all mobile phones today have a filter function that allows us to reject spam calls or calls that the phone considers to be fraudulent. Although they have been prohibited by law, there are still loopholes that companies use to continue bothering with this type of contact… And blocking the number is the best way to avoid it. Luckily, interesting tools also appear that allow us to put an end to them and one of the main ones is the one that we collect in these paragraphs. It has been baptized as SnorCall and it is a tool created by a group of scientists who know that they can contribute something more in the fight against spam. They emphasize that, through this app, it will be possible to get much more information about the calls that are made, including those with criminal objectives.
Pushing the limits of the legal
The main problem facing the telephone industry, as the head of the tool himself comments, is that the operators do not want to expose themselves to privacy problems by listening to or monitoring calls. Nobody wants to get into eleven-yard shirts if there is no legal clause that gives them support in possible complaints by users.
But Brad Reaves, who is the main author of SnorCall, mentions that there is no two ways about it and that being able to listen to calls is necessary. He argues that the industry needs to take a stand against spam calls as soon as possible, especially those that are related to fraud and other crimes. The solution is to monitor, but in a way that only touches the legal limits.
This is how your system works
For now SnorCall is already working and providing good results. But the tests that are being carried out have not resorted to listening to private telephone numbers. In order to demonstrate that your app works, 60,000 numbers have been used that have only been dedicated to this objective, for which the development team has collaborated with a telephone operator known as Bandwidth. With this they have been able to see, register and demonstrate that their application works and that it could change everything.
The question is, how does it work? They say that the first thing that SnorCall does is compare the audio of the spam calls to put in the same group all those that are made up of the same message from the sender. That is, they look for a pre-recorded spam message that is repeated call after call. Once they have grouped the calls, they manage to eliminate a large number of them from the equation, which confirms that they were not spam, at least not automated spam.
After this, those calls that are considered spam are analyzed and transcribed by software known as Snorkel. At this point, certain data is searched for in an automated way that allows the creation of spam records on which to work later. The information that is analyzed gathers data such as: names of companies, services or government programs, request or not for money, request for personal data and other possible aspects of interest. This information goes on to swell a file in which everything is counted to try to better detect spam and crimes with the intention of fighting against it.
Among the reasons for monitoring calls is one as important as being able to track criminals and entities that are behind spam. As is well known, these people can hide the real number they are calling from, making it difficult to track them down. But what they cannot do is hide the contact number they give to their victims. And what SnorCall does is take note of that number, group them into lists, and create spam and threat logs that are more valuable to users. They also argue that by analyzing conversations, they can anticipate scam trends and thus help citizens.
However, privacy remains a sensitive issue. Now that the tool is out, what’s up in the air is whether carriers and other key players in the industry will accept its use in order to prevent spam calls. For users it could be a way to avoid scams and dangers, although it is clear that it is an app that raises many questions regarding the privacy of calls. For now it is possible to read more about this tool from the study they have published their authors.
