December 11, 2019

If there is one thing that brings almost all Americans together is our shared disdain for unsolicited robo-calls, a daily occurrence for most people as welcome as ants at a picnic and with the annoyance factor of stubbing a toe.

Making the problem especially vexing is the way that spammers are able to evade the law and avoid detection by moving operations across borders. Well that option may soon be off the table.

In good news for consumers and anyone with a phone, a new authentication system dubbed SHAKEN/STIR was successfully tested this week between the U.S. and Canada, with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his Canadian counterpart announcing the success of a completed cross-border call which was authenticated and connected through the new filtering system.

The call was carried on the U.S. side from Comcast, who has played a central role in developing and deploying updated technologies to fight spam and block robo-calls. Comcast was an early signer to a pledge to employ the SHAKEN/STIR technology to protect consumers from spam.

Pai and Scott explained how the SHAKEN/STIR filter works through a joint statement announcing the successful call:

This new framework enables service providers to authenticate and verify the caller ID information of voice calls made using Internet Protocol. It’s essentially a digital fingerprint for telephone calls. When a call between participating providers is transmitted without that digital fingerprint, the receiving phone company will know that the caller ID information is spoofed and can act to protect its customer from scams.

As U.S. officials and companies like Comcast work to put an end to annoying and distracting phone spam, consumers can take heart that real progress was achieved this week. It’s a good sign that the days may soon be numbered for international criminals preying on our devices and personal information.