The art of wasting our time

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For a couple of months now, I have been getting calls on my cellphone for a person who is not me. Usually, they are commercial cold calls, but given the influx, I started conversations with some of the people calling me. It turns out they have obtained my phone number from various mobile apps, such as Kaspr, Lusha, or Apollo. No amount of conversation will make up for the time lost.

All of them seem to be USA-based companies, but this problem is affecting me in Europe. It won't be easy. The reason is that you cannot talk to an actual human being who gives a shit. By email, they redirect you to their webpage, where you can request that your personal data be removed. But there is a catch: they have messed up merging data from different sources, so your phone number is associated with an identity that is not yours, so you cannot provide all the data they want from you to be able to remove your info from their system, so the calls keep coming in. 

I have learned about two different people whose identities have been linked to my cellphone number so far. I contacted one of them on LinkedIn, but the only thing we could conclude was that his cellphone number had no resemblance to mine. 

Last night, I realized I had enough info to fill in the request for annulment of the record with my phone, combining data from two identities, so I did. This morning, I received a call asking for one of my "data-merge-buddies," so I followed up, in case it was a person trying to confirm my willingness for my record to be delivered. Unfortunately, it was just another commercial call trying to reach another person. 

Meanwhile, some data brokers continue to make money selling dubious data. There has to be a problem somewhere. Even worse than receiving spam calls is getting somebody else's spam calls, don't you think? 

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