Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 10 (Xinhua) -- Why is "psoriasis" so difficult to treat like "long eyes"?
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Yan Zhihong and Zhao Xu
Have you ever had such an experience? As soon as you download a stock trading app on the front foot, you can receive various stock recommendation sales calls on the back foot...... Nowadays, harassing calls are becoming more and more intelligent, like "long eyes", "knowing" your needs.
The "hit rate" of harassing phone calls is getting higher and higher, and what is the trick behind it? Why are harassing phone calls as difficult to cure as "psoriasis"? The "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter conducted an investigation into this.
Spam calls "know everything" about the needs
"We have a few selected stocks here, I recommend you to learn about them!" After receiving this call, Lao Yang, a citizen of Xiamen, was very angry, hung up the phone directly, and pulled the caller number into the "blacklist".
What makes Lao Yang puzzled is that the current harassing phone calls are like "long eyes", and he "knows everything about his needs". Not long ago, Lao Yang downloaded a stock trading software, just started using it, and received a call to recommend stocks on the same day. "The other party is a robot, saying that there are several stocks that have been analyzed by artificial intelligence and will have a 'market' in the future. Lao Yang said that since then, similar harassing phone calls have emerged in an endless stream, at least four or five times a day, and more than ten times.
Coincidentally. Such harassing phone calls also bothered Mr. Li, a Beijing resident. "I don't answer the work call or courier call for fear of missing it, and I have blocked and reported it after answering, but it has no effect. Mr. Li said that these harassing calls made by robots will constantly change the "vest" calls, even if they are "blocked", it is useless.
On the Black Cat complaint platform, there are more than 400 complaints about "using bots to make harassing calls to users". Some users reported that "they can receive a harassing call from a robot almost every day", and some users said that after registering an app, "they began to receive harassing calls from bots".
According to the "Inventory of Spam Complaints in the Third Quarter of 2023" released by the 12321 Network Bad and Spam Reporting Acceptance Center, 94.5% of the harassing phone complaints in the third quarter of 2023 were related to commercial marketing, and the top three were loan management, arrears collection and real estate agents.
The reporter learned that the use of artificial intelligence to carry out telemarketing is in vogue. If you search for "outbound telemarketing" on the Internet, most of the search results displayed are "artificial intelligence outbound call service".
The cats behind the "precise" harassment
Why are harassing calls more accurate now?
On a second-hand trading platform, when the reporter searched using specified keywords, it was found that some merchants claimed to be able to provide "accurate customer mobile phone numbers" in the product introduction.
A merchant showed reporters the collection channels of its customer information, including two short video platforms and a "talent planting" platform, and each customer's information also includes a description of their specific needs. When the reporter asked whether its data source was compliant, the merchant said, "Don't worry, we won't do anything illegal."
"User information obtained through such channels may be provided with the user's 'authorization'. He Yanzhe, deputy director of the evaluation laboratory of the network security center of the China Electronics Standardization Institute, said for example, in a second-hand car trading app, customers need to fill in their mobile phone number if they want to know the reserve price of a certain car. As a result, the platform, second-hand car dealers, and third-party salespeople may all have access to this contact information, "If you carefully look at the user agreement of the software, you will find that the platform will ask the user to 'authorize' to provide a large amount of personal information, or even provide it to multiple parties in a 'bundled' way." ”
The reporter found that the privacy policy of a "grass" social app prompts that the App will "share users' personal information with "business partners" as necessary, including but not limited to third-party merchants on the platform, third-party logistics service providers, advertising and statistical analysis partners, etc. The Privacy Policy also reminds that when a user chooses to participate in relevant marketing activities, the user's name, gender, mailing address, contact information, bank account information, etc. will be shared with "affiliates" or "third parties" after "with the user's consent".
"With the use of artificial intelligence, the efficiency of personal information capture and phone calls has been greatly improved. Cybersecurity expert Rong Wenjia said.
"Your transaction behavior on shopping apps, browsing Xi on short video apps, and posting replies on social apps all have artificial intelligence behind 'electronic tags', which is often referred to as 'user portraits'. Rong Wenjia explained that these "electronic tags" will be desensitized and deeply processed, and then shared with the partners of major apps, and the cooperative institutions can re-associate these "electronic tags" with the corresponding users through some means, which is why push advertisements and sales calls are becoming more and more accurate.
Zhao Jingwu, an associate professor at the Law School of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said that the current harassing phone calls have been repeatedly banned, and the main difficulty in governance is that it is difficult to determine the source of personal information leakage, and there are still regulatory difficulties in the intentional or negligent disclosure of customer information by business personnel of third-party marketing companies. At the same time, some apps and online platforms have made the buying and selling of personal information into a black and gray industry chain, and the sales target is not limited to a specific industry, "users cannot determine which platform their information was leaked from, and it is difficult to find evidence." ”
How to deal with harassing phone calls "psoriasis"
In recent years, the relevant state departments have achieved certain results in controlling harassing phone calls through a variety of means. In the first half of 2023, more than 9 billion spam messages were intercepted, 1.42 billion fraudulent phone calls and 1.51 billion fraudulent text messages were intercepted. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has also promoted the "harassing call refusal" service, strengthened the integrated technical prevention measures for telecommunications network fraud, and issued the "Notice on Further Improving the Capacity of Mobile Internet Application Services" to strengthen the governance of the entire process and chain of apps.
In addition, in October 2019, the three telecom operators launched the "Nuisance Call Rejection" service for users across the country, and users can activate this anti-harassment service free of charge. For example, China Mobile users can send SMS "KTFSR" to 10086, or dial 10086 to activate the manual service. As of June 2023, the number of users of the "unsolicited call refusal" service exceeded 540 million, and the cumulative number of unwanted calls provided to protect users from harassing calls exceeded 46.03 billion times.
Zeng Jianqiu, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said that the root cause of the difficulty in curing harassing calls is the long-term demand for commercial sales. "The economic benefits of harassment calls are low cost and can be realized, and this economic interest drives the formation of an industrial chain of harassment calls, and new ways of harassment emerge one after another, bringing difficulties to governance. ”
According to the Personal Information Protection Law, the collection of personal information shall be limited to the minimum scope to achieve the purpose of processing, and excessive collection of personal information shall not be allowed. The handling of personal information shall follow the principles of openness and transparency, disclose the rules for handling personal information, and clearly indicate the purpose, methods, and scope of the handling. Do not refuse to provide products or services on the grounds that individuals do not agree. Those who violate the provisions of this law and constitute a violation of the administration of public security shall be punished according to law; those who constitute a crime shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law. However, due to the diversification of personal information leakage, it is difficult for regulators to achieve comprehensive, timely and effective supervision.
Zhao Jingwu suggested that the publicity and promotion of channels for complaints about personal information leakage should be increased, and the whole society should be encouraged to enhance the awareness of personal information protection, and at the same time urge app stores to take security measures, conduct pre-verification, in-process review, and post-event blocking of whether there is illegal collection of personal information by apps on the shelves, and do a good job of reporting problems.
Zeng Jianqiu suggested that investment and research and development of network technology should be strengthened to realize information sales, traceability, and evidence collection for leakage, and to set up functions such as "one-click reporting" for consumers.
He Yanzhe and other experts also suggested that relevant telecom service providers should strengthen the supervision ability of using artificial intelligence and other technological means, and use "magic" to defeat "magic", "artificial intelligence has improved the efficiency of harassing calls, and relevant platforms should also use artificial intelligence to deeply study and Xi such behaviors, and detect and block the use of artificial intelligence to make harassing calls as soon as possible." ”
Experts suggest that as far as ordinary users are concerned, there are three main ways to prevent harassing calls: one is to turn on the "anti-harassment" function of the mobile phone or use the "harassing call refusal" service provided by telecom operators; the second is to pay attention to the WeChat public account "12321 reception center" and click "I want to complain" to fill in the relevant information; and the third is to keep relevant evidence and call 110 to report to the police when encountering harassing phone calls.