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What's particularly infuriating about this is that the phone company knows which numbers it owns. It can tell if a call coming in from another provider is spoofed to a number it owns and block it, but they don't currently do that. If every phone company did this, it would significantly cut down on the number of bogus calls because you could only spoof calls on the same network that you're on.

So how can the phone company not backtrack to figure out where the call originated? They know that at a specific time they connected a call to your number. If the call didn't originate on their network, don't they know whose network they're forwarding it from? If so, couldn't they then contact that network and see where it originated from (possibly going to other networks, maybe outside the country) and still trace it back to some originating phone line somewhere in the world? I mean, I can guess that they wouldn't keep these logs for very long because they'd get big very quickly, but even keeping it for 15 minutes and allowing you to call a number and say, "Hey this was a junk call" would help.

In fact, I once got a new phone number that was previously owned by someone who owed a lot of people money. I was getting regular harassing calls from debt collectors who didn't believe that I was the new owner of the number. So I called the police and filed a report. I then called the phone company and gave them the number of the police report, and they gave me a phone number to call a few minutes after each time the debt collectors would call me. After 2 or 3 calls, they had the contact info of the debt collectors, gave it to the police who contacted the debt collectors and I never heard from them again.

Why can't this approach work for scam calls? I mean if they're outside the country, it would involve more work, but if thousands or millions of people are reporting calls that originate from the same place, then it seems like it would rise to the level of being worth it to do something about it.

They lay it out in English before laying out the legalese here:

http://www.nomorobo.com/pages/privacy

Some highlights from the legalese:

> 1.2 Data Privacy. You understand and agree that some of your call information (including, but not limited to, a log of all phone calls made to your subscribed phone line(s) and any requested additions to any customizable phone number blacklist or white list) may be viewable by you, the Company, and by any other person having a phone line subscribed to the Nomorobo Service through the same user account as you.

I don't know that that is actually possible on iOS, though, as iOS doesn't give the call log to the blacklist provider.

>1.3 Contact. From time to time, the Company may need to send e-mails, in-app messages, and/or push notifications to you and automated voice calls and/or text messages to all phone lines that are subscribed to or otherwise using the Nomorobo Service.

Could be innocuous now and be much more annoying later if they decide to change their business model.

>Binding Arbitration. If the parties to the Agreements do not reach a solution through the informal resolution process described in Paragraph 6.3(ii), then any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to the Agreements, shall be settled by arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (the "AAA") in accordance with its Commercial Arbitration Rules, and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator(s) may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof or having jurisdiction over the relevant party or its assets.

Must go to arbitration if anything goes wrong and you want to sue.

Overall, not the worst I've seen. There was another one that you had to grant permission to post to your Facebook wall and/or Twitter account. I don't recall which one it was, though.