BTS.talk: Bizarre Phone Survey

PODcast: Bizarre Phone Survey
Has anyone else run into this?

Regardless, what do you think about it? Is my gut reaction over reacting?

length: 06:22
file: btstpod_1682.mp3
size: 5974k
feed: btst
status: live (at time of posting)

[edit on 4/22/2006 by Relentless]

Some more of the questions:

What do you think about so & so. There were about three of them I had no clue, and I don't consider myself out of the loop.

Do you believe the following statement to be true? There were a couple of these but the first one was "Do you believe 5 million jobs have been created in the current administration?"

I said no - wait a minute - is it true? She didn't know - Anyone happen to know off the top of their heads?

If the Presidential election were held tomorrow which of the following would you vote for? The list was like a dozen names long, again - I never heard of half of them. Oh, this was the only question where it was limited to Republican choices - they didn't follow with the same question for Democrats even though I had not yet divulged my political affiliation.

I was asked multiple questions first with the word Democrat and then with the word Republican in it - basically, did I feel they were doing a good job on this or that. (I said no to all of them for both sides.)

Oh, here's an oddie I have to go see if it is true. There were multiple questions about whether or not "the following" situation is being made worse by the fact that for the past 30 years no oil exploration or expansion has been allowed in the US. None? Zilch? Nada?

Do you believe that border security should be addressed prior to resolving the existing illegal immigration situation?

The usual questions about the war and whether we should be there.

What is the one issue that determines who you ultimately vote for?

Multiple questions about how I feel about the government monitoring phones and internet without a court order.

There was a lot more, I'm telling you this was all over the board.

Hi Relentless! SO good to hear from you as always!

I won't participate in that stuff regardless who it is. They shouldn't have your name. I find that extremely odd. I wouldn't have given my name, but then again, they never would have gotten past my phone screening...

I see we have different take on this one (giving the name). The way I see it, what is there to hide - it's all already out there and these people already had my name as far as I could tell (anyone can do a reverse phone number look-up). All the more reason I find it odd if not disturbing they asked for it.

Regarding my lax attitude on my privacy for the most part, it is exactly this that makes me not care - it's all "out there" anyway. Take the following story, that a lot of you would think was very foolish on my part, but I wanted see how far my feelings regarding the fact that we are clinging to and fighting for a lot of things that are already lost.

There was someone I was frequently chatting with outside of ATS (don't get the wrong idea - he talks to DH too . He claimed to have access to intelligence so because I wanted to know/confirm my suspicions (it ain't worth worrying about, there is no such thing as privacy anymore so get over it). He is not from this country (the US).

Within minutes of giving him my current legal name, he had my maiden name and pretty much anything and everything about my life to date within 24 hours. It's all out there folks, and the people you don't want to have access to it do anyway - so why bother about it.

By the way - I do not recommend anyone else do this, I just happen to be in a position where there could be no repercussions in this particular instance with this particular person. It was a test for my own personal curiosity and I wanted to know/confirm.

You're right. I'm clinging to some hope that we still have privacy to some extent! Thanks for bursting my bubble!

Seriously, my motivation is just to make it as hard on them as I can. Yes, they have all my info, but if they want to verify it, they're going to have to do it without me because I'm not going to help them.

Originally posted by Relentless
Oh, here's an oddie I have to go see if it is true. There were multiple questions about whether or not "the following" situation is being made worse by the fact that for the past 30 years no oil exploration or expansion has been allowed in the US. None? Zilch? Nada?

Okay then, that seems to have been a bold faced lie. There are certainly stringent restrictions in place but as I suspected there has not been a total prohibition for 30 years in this area. So what kind of question was that?

This has prompted me to want to do a similar survey regarding politics, and record some of the responses to play in a podcast.
I wonder what the legality of doing that in Australia is, though....

so i just got this, im 16, and the guy asked for my name. heres the last part of the conversation

"did i dial the correct number of ***-***-****?"
"....yes"
"ok, sir, what is your name?"
"what?"
"what is your name, sir?"
"no, that I'm not comfortable saying."
"ok let me enter your response......im sorry sir you must answer your response as i was told from my superior, what is your name sir?"
"no thats too bad because I'm not telling you my name. I refuse to answer this question."
"ok sir goodbye(hangs up)"

what the hell is that???

Relentless: never have I gotten asked for my name before. I asked my landlord if ever has gotten that (since he is 78 years old, I figured he would be a good person to ask). He said never. Both of us agreed also that we have never been asked for our number because as you said, obviously they called it, they know it!

I'm thinking one of two things...

1. A really bad research company, that doesn't know how to appropriately make these kind of calls (I googled it as well, and the questions you were asked seem slightly out of place).
   
2. Someone is checking up to see how we are adapting to everything going on, and see what "the little people" are thinking about.
   

Either way, that would creep me out, too. Thanks for the Podcast and making us aware of this, now I know to keep my ears listening for this happening.

i was relatively more aware because i had read this thread BEFORE the call, so when he asked me my name, i knew something was up.

this was from the military branch. After answer questions of why i wouldnt join the marine corp the navy the army or the airforce, he asked my why i had a negative view about the military. i went into a long response about how irresponsible and corrupt they are then opened up a can of ATS-oldfashion style whoopass about how they probably are abusing their powers and lying. Then less then 3 minutes later hes asking me mmy name, so i was like screw him.

I didn't listen to the podcast, just replying to responses.

Anyway I got something similar a week or two ago. It ended up being a census. Which I feel is ridiculously overly in-depth, and you are legally required to fill it out, and then they just sell it to companies for a price. The lady was like "Is this...... (and said phone number very very slow with like 2 seconds between digits)"

Anyway if you've ever used a credit card or air miles, the bank knows everything about you anyway so... yeah.

It's not like they're stealing money from you so it's not that big of a deal, but yeah still.

but you can understand that im a minor, so what right do they have to my name? none. its not like im some one whos a legal adult, minors go by different rules.

Wow, so it's starting to look like a new trend. I'm really going to have to think about this one now.

Shame nobody who does phone surveys is around to enlighten us on this.

PODcast: Bizarre Phone Survey (reply 1)
Bizzare Phone Survey

length: 05:23
file: btstpod_1820.mp3
size: 1894k
feed:
status: live (at time of posting)

Quite bizarre.. The funny thing is that I just received this exact same survey 2 days ago. Same questions to the "T". What is kind of weird is I am in Central Florida right now at a relatives house and he encouraged me to do the survey because of the content, he figured I would have a stronger opinion about the issues. At the end of the survey the women asked me my name and I said the exact same thing, WHAT?! This info gathering is becoming all too common. I questioned the whole thing to my uncle and he said that they do those particular surveys for political parties trying to establish campaign strategies. If you think about the whole thing it does make sense. It is time to vote to get Jeb Bush out of office!!!! Dont get me wrong I dont agree with the method and will not do another one again, but it was a breath of fresh air to know that they are not creating some type of black list!! (or are they?) Hope this helped..

Oh yeah forgot to state that the survey was allegedly conducted by the University of Maryland and they said that a second survey was required in 2 weeks. Is this the same one?

[edit on 15-8-2006 by BORNLEADER]

Hmmmm....., my survey did not require a follow-up and it was not done by the University of Maryland.

However, I do live in Florida, so maybe it is a Florida thing.

Ranchman: - I have never received phone surveys on topics that one would find on ATS (which is what it sounds like you got). Are you sure your friends weren't messing with you? I mean being polled about orbs and noises in your house?

I would have had so much fun with that one.