In this tribute to an old new technology, I have applied a CAPTCHA-like challenge-response test to the medium of telecommunication. This mashup of the new-ish CAPTCHA and the good old telephone will keep pesky robocalls at bay, by redirecting callers to a personalized connection portal before putting them through to your private number.
The first type of CAPTCHA was developed in 1997, in which images of words are distorted in order to prevent interpretation by a computer. These words should only be interpretable by humans, thus preventing fraud. I was fascinated by the development of reCAPTCHA in 2007, used to confirm that a user is human, while simultaneously letting the user help digitize text.
Even though the telephone is an old medium, it is used more and more for fraudulent activities like robocalls. I would like to hold on to my romantic image of the phone as the sturdiest of communication tools a little while longer, after being driven to deleting my Facebook, Instagram and whatnot for reasons of privacy protection. That is why I have set up a personal connection portal through which anyone can reach me, but only after proving that they are not a robot.
In order to reach me, please call: 0031 85 225 0147 and follow the instructions.