Google has developed a way to stop ‘robocalls’ – nuisance calls which play a recorded message. The search giant has won a contest run by the US Federal Trade Commission to stop the calls, which are becoming an increasing annoyance.

Google’s system is similar to the one its Gmail service uses to filter out spam.

Google hopes to use a computer algorithm to automatically identify the nuisance calls and add numbers to its ‘blacklist’.

Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have suffered from the calls, particularly from personal protection insurance and accident claims companies.

‘The solutions that our winners came up with have the potential to turn the tide on illegal robocalls, and they show the wisdom of tapping into the genius and technical expertise of the public,’ said Charles Harwood, Acting Director, FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The Federal Trade Commission, the US communications watchdog, says it receives hundreds of thousands of complaints about robocalls every month.

‘We’re hoping these winning proposals find their way to the marketplace soon, and will provide relief to millions of American consumers harassed by these calls.’

The contest has also funded individuals to come up with solutions.

Serdar Danis and Aaron Foss will each receive $25,000 for their proposals, which both focus on intercepting and filtering out illegal prerecorded calls using technology to ‘blacklist’ robocaller phone numbers and ‘whitelist’ numbers associated with acceptable incoming calls.

Their system could also work as a mobile phone app.

(Source: Daily Mail)