The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is turning to crowdsourcing to develop new technology that will deter robocalls, which are autodialled calls that deliver pre-recorded messages that are often commercial or political in nature.
On Wednesday, the FTC announced a new competition calling all technically savvy individuals to develop a new technology that blocks robocalls on landlines and mobile phones and forwards them to a new honeypot, where government agencies, academic institutions, and private groups can analyze robocalls. The technology must also be able to better analyze an existing honeypot developed last year.
Dubbed Robocalls: Humanity Strikes Back, the contest is open to all individuals in the U.S. The qualifying phase opens on Wednesday and will run through June 15, where five contestants will be selected to participate in the second and final phase on Aug. 9 at the DefCon hacking conference in Las Vegas. The winner will be chosen by a panel of four judges and will receive $25,000 as prize, while two runners-up will be awarded $10,500 each. The remaining finalists will be given $2,000 each for making it to the final round.
The FTC is no stranger to crowdsourcing technologies for preventing robocalls. Last year, the agency hosted a similar contest where the winner developed a honeypot that identifies robocalls and collects data about them. The FTC says the current honeypot is available as an open-source technology for private companies to use.
In 2013, the agency also launched another competition that amassed a total of 800 submissions. Two winners were chosen, including one who developed Nomorobo, a software that screens out robocallers and hangs them up even before they reach consumers, and a technology developed by Google that is now incorporated in the company's services.
"We're using many strategies to fight robocalls, including law enforcement, education, and crowd-sourced innovation," says Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "Following the success of our previous robocall challenges, we're once again seeking expertise from the public to put a new tool in consumers' hands, and to develop technology to help law enforcement and other partners investigate these calls."
The FTC is also holding a second contest called DetectaRobo, which will be held on June 6, the National Day of Civic Hacking, where U.S. citizens unite with government agencies to sold technical issues. The contest will be open to the first 50 registrants, who will be given data from an existing honeypot that they can use to develop an algorithm that identifies calls that are likely from automated telemarketers. DetectaRobo contestants can participate through a local hackathon on June 6 or join the contest through the FTC's website.
Photo: Jon Phillips | Flickr
