PrivatePhone was a free voicemail service developed by NetZero on June 1, 2006 [1] as a way for users to get their own voicemail for free. [2] [3] Originally the service only allowed 10 voicemail messages in the main inbox at a time, and it gave the notice "Please leave a message for this Privatephone.com subscriber after the tone"; however, this was later changed to just "Please leave a message after the tone". On February 19, 2008, PrivatePhone ended its service.
The "Gotta Go Call" feature was one of Netzero's unique features that was used to schedule a call to your phone with an automated message that could be used to give one an excuse to leave an uncomfortable social situation. When users scheduled a "Gotta Go Call", they received a call from the number 1-800-991-9984.
Like any other free service, there were limits on what one could do with PrivatePhone, including:
In late 2006, PrivatePhone began making promotional videos showing scenarios of people who needed PrivatePhone and posted them on their web site to show people why they should sign up. In early 2007, Netzero began advertising Netzero Voice and PrivatePhone at Best Buy by making special PrivatePhone CDs which included the videos featured on the web site and a phone number (1-866-755-7055) where people could sign up by telephone if they called with a mobile phone (so that people could receive their account information by text message).
These are three promotional videos that were made for PrivatePhone which include different scenarios in which the necessity of PrivatePhone is shown, then a professor comes on and gives a short explanation on how the service is free (no contracts to sign, no credit card required and nothing extra to buy) and all incoming calls go right to voicemail that you can check online or on the phone and how PrivatePhone could have helped the person in the scenario. Each video was produced and animated by 23D Films and were directed by Ben Ceccarelli.
This video shows a scenario with a woman who posted her resume online and her resume has her cell phone number and while working for her job she answered calls from three prospective employers right in front of the one she's working for. The professor explains that PrivatePhone can help you stay on top of job prospects without jeopardizing the one you have. [4]
Dick and Jane meet each other in a bar and Jane thinks Dick is attractive and they have a great conversation together. Jane gives Dick her cell phone number and hope to hear from Dick again, and she does again, and again, and again, and again. The professor explains that you can use PrivatePhone to connect with people without use your home or cell phone numbers. [5]
Bob likes to shop online and gave out his home number while shopping. It was promptly handed to telemarketers. Bob got himself a one-time deal, but Bob continues to pay a mealtime cost. The professor explains that you can use PrivatePhone to give your number out when you shop and all future calls from retailers go straight to voicemail that one can check quickly over the phone. [6]
PrivatePhone originally announced that on December 31, 2007, they would be ending their service, but in January they extended the closure date to February 19, 2008. Though users were not able to keep the service, PrivatePhone had allowed existing users to move their PrivatePhone numbers to Packet8 for a fee. At that time, new signups were no longer accepted, and PrivatePhone sent a message to all of its users on January 16, 2008 informing them about its discontinuation. Despite the service ending on February 19, 2008, NetZero still gave existing users the opportunity to keep their number.
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through public message boards and sometimes via direct chatting. In the early 1980s, message networks such as FidoNet were developed to provide services such as NetMail, which is similar to internet-based email.
Caller identification is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is being set up. The caller ID service may include the transmission of a name associated with the calling telephone number, in a service called Calling Name Presentation (CNAM). The service was first defined in 1993 in International Telecommunication Union—Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Recommendation Q.731.3.
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Google Voice is a telephone service that provides a U.S. phone number to Google Account customers in the U.S. and Google Workspace customers in Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It is used for call forwarding and voicemail services, voice and text messaging, as well as U.S. and international calls. Calls are forwarded to the phone number that each user must configure in the account web portal. Users can answer and receive calls on any of the phones configured to ring in the web portal. While answering a call, the user can switch between the configured phones. Subscribers in the United States can make outgoing calls to domestic and international destinations. The service is configured and maintained by users in a web-based application, similar in style to Google's email service Gmail, or Android and iOS applications on smartphones or tablets.
In many voice telephone networks, anonymous call rejection (ACR) is a calling feature implemented in software on the network that automatically screens out calls from callers who have blocked their caller ID information.
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YouMail is an Irvine, CA-based developer of visual voicemail and Robocall blocking software. Their voicemail software replaces the voicemail service offered by mobile phone manufacturers, and offers webmail-like voicemail access and voicemail-to-text transcriptions. The company also compiles the YouMail Robocall index by monitoring automated call patterns and behaviors, and verifying that activity against numbers that its customers manually block or report as spam.
Call whisper, otherwise known as call screening, is a calling feature that often appears on non-geographic telephony systems and hosted inbound call handling software. It involves the playing of a message to the called party when they have answered a call, during which time the calling party continues to hear ringing. The called party can then decide whether to accept the call or to reject it. They can also identify the caller by their caller ID number or answer the phone in an appropriate manner for the number that has been dialed.
Phone hacking is the practice of exploring a mobile device often using computer exploits to analyze everything from the lowest memory and central processing unit levels up to the highest file system and process levels. Modern open source tooling has become fairly sophisticated as to be able to "hook" into individual functions within any running App on an unlocked device and allow deep inspection and modification of their functions.
