Tag Archive for: Phone

How phone companies drive people crazy

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Every journalist has experienced this type of phone call, as have librarians, police dispatchers and I presume those in a number of other public-facing professions. This one involves a longtime friend who works for a CBS news affiliate and prefers to remain anonymous.

CALLER: “Hi, could you give me the phone number for FOX 5 in (a major city)?”

JOURNALIST: “I’m sorry?”

CALLER: “FOX 5. The TV station. Do you have the number?”

JOURNALIST: “Why do you want the number?”

CALLER: “Why do you want to know?”

JOURNALIST: “Are you calling them about a story?”

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Network World Paul McNamara

Researchers sound alarm about the role of any and all phone sounds in distracted driving

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You say you don’t answer your phone and wouldn’t dream of texting while driving?

Not good enough, say researchers from Florida State University, as the mere presence of that cacophonous device in a moving motor vehicle is enough to dangerously distract a driver:

Whether you are alerted to an incoming phone call or text by a trendy ringtone, an alarm bell or a quiet vibration, just receiving a notification on your cell phone can cause enough of a distraction to impair your ability to focus on a given task, according to a new Florida State University study.

In fact, the distraction caused by a simple notification — whether it is a sound or a vibration — is comparable to the effects seen when users actively use their cell phones to make calls or send text messages, the researchers found.

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Network World Paul McNamara

Surveillance court extends NSA’s phone records collection

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A U.S. surveillance court has extended a controversial telephone records dragnet while the National Security Agency works to wind down the program on orders from Congress.

Congress voted in June to rein in the NSA’s mass collection of U.S. telephone records, but the USA Freedom Act allowed for a six-month transition away from the program. On Monday, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved an FBI application to continue the records collection program until December.

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Network World Security

US Senate leader pushes to extend NSA phone dragnet

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The U.S. Senate was deadlocked on Friday over whether to extend authorization for the National Security Agency’s massive collection of domestic telephone records, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisting the surveillance program should continue with no new limits.

With a weekend deadline looming, McConnell advocated for extending the section of the Patriot Act that the NSA has used to justify its collection of millions of U.S. phone records over the last nine years. Section 215 of the Act, which allows the agency to collect any telephone and business records relevant to a counterterrorism investigation, expires June 1, and Congress is scheduled to take a week-long recess starting this weekend.

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Network World Security