Gregory's Server@by_caballero @trwnh this would work except for the specific way that number portability is implemented. ๐ At least historically, and very likely still today, the "database" used to map phone numbers as assigned by exchange blocks (i.e., to a given carrier) to phone numbers that have been ported to a different carrier by the customer (under number portability laws) was a set of spreadsheets synchronized by FTP at intervals. Access to said "databases" is entirely contractual.
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 @by_caballero @trwnh so _in theory_ PSTN operators could provide a lookup system, but it'd be jank af at best, and more likely it would be a horrendous unfixable security disaster.  @blaine @by_caballero i was thinking more that you could declare a tel: as one of your "aliases" at your authoritative wf and then it percolates through the rest of the system @trwnh @by_caballero since tel: is extremely fraught, especially nowadays with insane phone spam etc, a Signal/WhatsApp/etc address might be a good alternative example? I particularly like the "established encrypted messenger" example because the wf->[rel=messenger]-> lookup could get Fedi encrypted DMs "for free." (obviously lots I'm glossing over that make it more complicated, but in theory it'd be less complicated than many alternatives)  @trwnh @by_caballero (one thing to note is that it's *not* possible to declare an alias, e.g. a phone number in a wf or other profile, *and then* use that alias in reverse as a way to look up the original profile. I mean, one _could_ do it, but with questions of identity at play it would be an incredibly very extremely bad idea to do that from every conceivable security perspective.) |
@blaine @trwnh uuuuugggghhhhh i wish i could unlearn that hideous namespace governance