Has the government been monitoring and recording your telephone conversations? A government contractor was able to copy 1 terabyte worth of phone calls recorded by the government. Enter your phone number to find out if they've been spying on you!
Ahh, you just want someone else to put in their phone number first, and then leave a comment here to see if the claims are true. Thereby exposing *them* to the possibility of harassing phone calls.
That is actually a good idea.
Posted by Splarka on Thu Mar 31, 2005 at 09:44 PM
A terabyte isn't that much. I remember back when a terabyte was used to scare kids into eating their vegetables. The first mention of it I saw was in a definition of computer terms. Something like "it would take 850 years to download a terabyte over the fastest 300 baud modem".
If he downloaded 1 terabyte of audio files at 8khz, 8 bit mono (about 8K a second), and lets guess an average of 300 seconds per call, that would give him about 416666 files. If there are about 280,000,000 phones (about 940 per 1000 people) then the odds of matching one phone number would be 1:672 (better to say, the odds of finding one match if you entered your phone number and every number you called in the last year, would be 672. Would be up to 672^2 otherwise). Even if it was compressed to bejeezus and back, and was smaller snippets, that would only increase the odds by a factor of 10 or 20 or so.
If it was just transcripts of recorded conversation, then it might be more believable.
However, I am still not gonna try it.
Where are all the adventurous aprilfools visitors? Are they still all on the phone talking to whoever calls the numbers that are submitted?
Posted by Splarka on Thu Mar 31, 2005 at 10:02 PM
I did it for a laugh (not my phone # of course). It's April Fools, of course.
Posted by Winona on Thu Mar 31, 2005 at 10:05 PM
You bloody fools(except Winona), like you couldn't put in a 555 number, just for fun?
My god , The Beast is gonna get ya!
Posted by Rod on Thu Mar 31, 2005 at 10:13 PM
I did this too. Works with 8 digit phone numbers of Australia (just put in my work numbers!) :lol:
Posted by Smerk on Thu Mar 31, 2005 at 10:23 PM
Actually, you don't even have to put a number in, I just found out.
You get the same result with your own number as with 382-5968.
The more bored of you out there will see what THAT spells on your phone keypad.
Posted by Rod on Thu Mar 31, 2005 at 10:44 PM
OK. It's official. I'm bored! Not that it takes too much effort to work out that number, Rod.
Posted by Smerk on Thu Mar 31, 2005 at 10:53 PM
As noted, you can just click 'search' - and you get Stephen Hawking, telling you that the world does not revolve around you. I note that the word I had to type to post this message was 'skeptic'. Hmmm.
Posted by Ashley Pomeroy on Fri Apr 01, 2005 at 11:18 AM
That HawkMan is a card. What a sense of humor. He called me up a while ago, and sez: "Hairy- do you think I should tell evryone that the whole Quantum Physics things is a prank, or just keep up the joke"? I said: "Hawkster- if they can't figure it out on their own, let 'em eat fish heads"... wise words, yours to frame
Posted by Hairy Houdini on Fri Apr 01, 2005 at 12:25 PM
I'm sure it would be no technical problem for the government to record all my phone calls, but why would it want to?
The main reason wiretapping isn't done more often is because it's such a crushing bore for whoever has to listen to all the phone conversations.
Posted by Big Gary C on Fri Apr 01, 2005 at 02:55 PM
...Thank you for calling Pizza Hut, will this be delivery or carry out? Hold on! (covers receive) Do we want to pick it up? No? Okay.
Delivery.
And what would you like on your pizza? Do you have any specials?
Sure Can I hear them all?
That'll take about 20 minutes... I've got time...
Seriously...The government is NOT that interested in my phone calls.
Posted by Maegan on Sun Apr 03, 2005 at 09:06 AM
When they were changing the security laws so that the gov't could listen into convos easier the point was made to me that I could potentially be a target as I'm an immigrant. My response was that they'd be damned bored by what they heard. "Can you give me the recipe for such and such....you won't believe what my son did....can you pick up some milk on the way home?"
Though one of the more interesting moments of my life was when 2 FBI guys showed up at my door after a couple of days of noticing two guys sitting in a van across the corner. We had also noticed weird clicks on our phone...
(They came to talk to my hubby about something innocent as it turned out, but my first thought in that first split second was wondering if all my papers were in order even though I know in my sane mind they have nothing to do with immigration. Weird.
Posted by Winona on Sun Apr 03, 2005 at 10:56 PM
I'm sure the goverment want to here about the murder my boyfriend and I are planing. (Note this is a joke.)
Posted by Dany on Tue Apr 05, 2005 at 03:57 PM
Winona, your story seemed plausible until the mention of "We had also noticed weird clicks on our phone", which makes me think you learned about phone tapping from movies.
Posted by black helicopters on Tue May 31, 2005 at 08:19 PM
I don't care if it seems plausible, it may have been coincidence, but I'm just reporting it as it happened.
I know at the time it kinda creeped me out. 😉
Posted by Winona on Tue May 31, 2005 at 09:00 PM
This post is joke, but government really can monitoring all phone calls
Posted by Bphone on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 08:49 AM
Patriot act :(
Posted by Claude Hopkins on Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 06:02 PM
Pretty cool PT stunt:)
Posted by billig mobil on Thu Mar 12, 2009 at 11:36 AM
By adopting this way will the government stop accidents?
Posted by Free Calls on Wed Oct 20, 2010 at 09:16 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Comments
That is actually a good idea.
If he downloaded 1 terabyte of audio files at 8khz, 8 bit mono (about 8K a second), and lets guess an average of 300 seconds per call, that would give him about 416666 files. If there are about 280,000,000 phones (about 940 per 1000 people) then the odds of matching one phone number would be 1:672 (better to say, the odds of finding one match if you entered your phone number and every number you called in the last year, would be 672. Would be up to 672^2 otherwise). Even if it was compressed to bejeezus and back, and was smaller snippets, that would only increase the odds by a factor of 10 or 20 or so.
If it was just transcripts of recorded conversation, then it might be more believable.
However, I am still not gonna try it.
Where are all the adventurous aprilfools visitors? Are they still all on the phone talking to whoever calls the numbers that are submitted?
My god , The Beast is gonna get ya!
You get the same result with your own number as with 382-5968.
The more bored of you out there will see what THAT spells on your phone keypad.
The main reason wiretapping isn't done more often is because it's such a crushing bore for whoever has to listen to all the phone conversations.
Hold on! (covers receive) Do we want to pick it up? No? Okay.
Delivery.
And what would you like on your pizza?
Do you have any specials?
Sure
Can I hear them all?
That'll take about 20 minutes...
I've got time...
Seriously...The government is NOT that interested in my phone calls.
Though one of the more interesting moments of my life was when 2 FBI guys showed up at my door after a couple of days of noticing two guys sitting in a van across the corner. We had also noticed weird clicks on our phone...
(They came to talk to my hubby about something innocent as it turned out, but my first thought in that first split second was wondering if all my papers were in order even though I know in my sane mind they have nothing to do with immigration. Weird.
I know at the time it kinda creeped me out. 😉