hey do you have I heard your car warranty is about to expire? Anyway, that’s what the invisible robotic voice on the other end of the phone wants you to think about. Fortunately, these endless spam calls may soon become less frequent.
This week, the FCC closed a policy loophole that required voice service carriers to adhere to standards that help block robocalls. All carriers in the US are now required to use a technology called Stir/Shaken (a very long and unwieldy acronym for Federal Calling Standard). It’s a way to identify legitimate carriers and allow them to connect your phone, while blocking those trying to spam you.
Large carriers were already using the standard when the FCC announced the policy last year. The exceptions are landlines and companies with less than 100,000 customers. It turns out that a surprising number of spam calls are filtered through these smaller companies, and this week the FCC said it requires everyone to adhere to stirring/shaking standards, no matter the size.
as Ars Technica Point out that this isn’t a perfect plan and won’t completely eliminate spam calls. The Stir/Shaken standard doesn’t apply to landlines, so old-fashioned scammers can still make calls. Also, the standard is only available in the US, so anyone who spoofs numbers overseas can find a way to get around it. And it’s still possible that you’ll get some really weird scams via text.In the meantime, our best advice is, if in doubt, don’t get involved – even if your car warranty does Yes Expiring.
Here’s some more gadget news.
Instant delete
If you’re an iPhone user who’s ever decided to go all-in on Instagram, actually deleting your account can be a bit of a challenge. You can’t do this in the app itself; instead, you have to log in through a web browser. It is now possible to delete your Instagram account on iOS in the app.
The move comes in response to a new policy Apple implemented in its App Store on Thursday that requires any app that asks users to create an account to also provide them with a way to end their account. It’s still not a complete break, at least not right away. The app tries to guide you to “deactivate” the account instead of deleting it, which just puts it on hold. If you really, really delete it, there’s a 30-day grace period before the account is completely wiped, and it will automatically restore the account if you log back in. Sounds a lot like… delete Facebook.
Speaking of, did you know you can delete your Facebook account too?
Like every other app, TikTok’s all about shopping now
Get ready to buy more on TikTok. Last year, TikTok partnered with Shopify to let creators sell items on the platform. Now it’s testing a feature to display these store features more prominently in the app.
TechCrunch An unearthed screenshot of the Shop option appears to allow people to browse product categories within the app and add items to their cart. The Shop tab is prominently displayed at the top of the main TikTok and For You tabs.
