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Comment by zeven7 | Hacker News Reader

Do most people actually care about being able to place phone calls and be anonymous in 2024? If I call someone it's either someone who has my number already or someone who is going to ask who it is (like a business) and I'm going to tell them who I am.

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Doctor's offices and schools are notorious for using the caller ID "blocked." I let them hit voicemail.

> Doctor's offices and schools are notorious for using the caller ID "blocked." I let them hit voicemail.

My doctor's office won't leave messages, and appears to have about 20 minutes a day where they pick up the phone, so, if I don't pick up when they call, then I can't talk to them. (I know, I know, get a new doctor. But this is my third try to find a specialist who's willing to go beyond "here are some easy suggestions that you've already told me don't apply to you," and there are only so many battles that I can pick before I just run out of specialists entirely.)

You can thank HIPAA for that. Under the Privacy Rule medical information has to be guarded. While I have seen some practices let you indicate on the patient forms that you allow brief or full voicemail, many won't do it as there's no one to confirm their name and DOB. Even the fact that you are a patient at a clinic can be protected health information (for example getting a call from a women's health clinic or drug rehab center that doesn't block caller ID can be compromising).

It's because they don't want callbacks.

To reiterate, calls need to say who's calling. They don't need to come from a number that will be answered.

It's about liability, and making sure there are consequences for spamming.

There are many valid reasons for making anonymous calls in 2024, including but not limited to being able to suss out information without exposing ones on identity.

Me and most people I know have stopped answering the phone completely if we don't recognize the number, because the ratio of spam to useful calls is so huge. Since this screening renders your use case for anonymous calls completely moot, the benefit of allowing them (very small, in my opinion) has to be weighed against the costs of the current system. Just to pick a random one, political polling is completely fucked at the moment, because so many people don't pick up pollster calls.

Edit: actually the more I think about your comment, the less sense it makes. What information could be gained by an anonymous phone call? Please walk me through this scenario, because I don't see it at all. Who is giving away sensitive information to an anonymous caller that they wouldn't give if there was caller ID?

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