This was true before digital switches were ubiquitous. To trace a call that was routed through mechanical switches, actual people would have to spring into action and actually trace the circuit through the selectors and trunks and whatnot.
A surprising number of places were still served by these ancient switches into the late 80s. Maybe even early 90s?
"...actual people would have to spring into action and actually trace the circuit through the selectors"
Yeah, reminiscent of scenes from old movies, you'd have to keep crooks talking long enough to manually trace engaged selectors through the exchange. If a crook hung up before a trace was completed one mightn't have the full number but only half of it, this at least could place cops in the right ballpark/area.
If you're a crook another great advantage of step-by-step Strowger exchanges is that the only indication that a call has been made from one's telephone is a single incremental relay-type counter on one's telephone line for the purpose of charging the customer—one click on the counter one call. Unless someone is standing by the counter in the exchange when a call is made then the time of the call and the number phoned would never be recorded.
Given privacy violations and such shenanigans these days it seems to me one doesn't have to be a crook to benefit from ancient Stronger switch exchanges.
Shame they've all now bitten the dust just when we need them.
Gen-z/alpha will lament at millenials screwing them over with crap like this. Same as how millenials lament about boomers and the state of the economy.
The solution is legal not tech. 5G and wifi6 may allow the government to listen in and watch everything we do but it is the law that can prevent them from doing that. Even in public, there is an expectation of privacy. If you look up a woman's skirt, you can't use "she was in public" as an excuse, it's still a crime because there was an expectation of privacy.
Anyone should be allowed to view and record public activities but not in a way that unveils information explicitly hidden from the public. If you have x-ray vision like superman for example, it would be illegal to see under people's cloths or to read information in the journal in their pocket. Now replace x-ray vision with 5G/wifi6 radio.
How can you blame an entire generation for the actions of individuals whose membership in a given generation are almost entirely incidental? This aspect of the generation wars is a comical misdirection of accountability IMO.
I don't recall my mom shipping jobs to China or debasing the currency...
> whose membership in a given generation are almost entirely incidental?
I don't, I said they will. But they're not being entirely unreasonable. In a democracy, are the voters not ultimately accountable?
> I don't recall my mom shipping jobs to China or debasing the currency...
Sure, so long as she didn't vote for reagan. Shipping jobs to china was part of his trickle down economics. People like to claim how politicians are corrupt and liars but they/we should look at the mirror because that is what politicians are. I watched a video a few days ago where a guy explains boomer mindset at the time really well, how they conflated the mindset and trauma inherited from their parents in the great depression and world war 2 with their own prosperous era and expect their children to suffer because that was the norm they inherited. Obviously this only speaks to the majority who vote not everyone who merely existed. But all the protections and taxes that could have prevented the mess of today were removed by reagan and bush and they still today fight tooth and nail to make sure things remain screwed up. Look at how people are voting and why they are voting that way. Even trumpism can be boiled down to reverting changes so that the world that protected their interests is recreated.