When the “Last Call” Could Be The First Mistake
Posted by: ID Guardian on March 22, 2010
Hollywood, as we all know, loves to tap the vein of “trendy” for everything it’s worth. This is nothing new if you look back on the history of cinema. Silent films gave way to Talkies. Black and white eventually yielded to color. Cinemascope gave moviegoers a wider perspective on things. Horror movies like The Tingler and House of Wax broke the third wall and brought the audience into the action (although Vincent Price is enough to for me). Now with IMAX 3D being the hot gimmick, Hollywood continues to search for that “unforgettable experience” to get people into theatres.
While on Twitter, a colleague of mine — Ben Wassink — shared a Gizmodo article about a new idea knocking on Hollywood’s door. In the same way films like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Quarantine attempt to immerse the audience into a really scary situation, a company called 13th Street produced the feature film Last Call. In Last Call, the protagonist is locked in a house straight out of Saw with a maniacal killer hunting her down and horrific images lurking around every corner. What is a Scream Queen to do? Simple: She whips out her mobile phone and calls for help…from someone in the audience.
According to Gizmodo’s Kyle VanHemert, this is how Last Call works:
“Audience members supply their cell numbers at the beginning of the screening and, at one point in the movie, one phone is selected to receive a call from the character on screen. Voice recognition software listens for the moviegoer’s commands and the story unfolds based on their instructions. From the looks of things it seems like it’s a ‘left’ or ‘right,’ ‘stay’ or ‘flee’ type of thing, so your exhortations for the main character to take off her clothes will likely go unfulfilled.”
The concept of Last Call sounds intriguing, but there is a burning question no one seems to be asking: What happens to all those unused mobile phone numbers? As seen in the trailer, you submit your number to a phone number provided by the movie studio. A Google Search for Last Call’s Terms of Service (TOS) for the film reveals…that their TOS is currently not online. This leaves us, the moviegoers, to guess exactly where our numbers will be stored, and what we will be left vulnerable to after the movie credits roll. (You might find a prophetic answer to this at timestamp 2:28 in the Last Call video clip.) It would be easy to presume that unused numbers would be removed from the database where they are stored, but how and when are they removed? Who is collecting these numbers? 13th Street or an independent contractor? How secure are these databases? As discussed in a previous blogpost, the concept of volunteering information is all the rage, and people are willingly doing this to be “part of” something. The problem is there seem to be little to no consideration what this “total immersion” will cost.
According to the 2010 Javelin Study on Identity Theft, the newest avenue for identity thieves is the mobile phone. 15% of cases involving “existing accounts used to run up charges or commit fraud to victims” were traced back to acquired mobile phone numbers (page 35). Victims of credit card fraud reported “higher incidences of information accessed from a mobile phone without their permission” (page 29). Finally there is a new spin on phishing: smishing, a version of phishing utilizing text messages that directs victims to websites that downloads malicious spyware onto the victim’s mobile phone or computer (Appendix, page 87).
All this is happening from someone getting hold of your mobile phone number.
Before surrendering 10 of the most important numbers in your daily life, consider the following:
- When vendors ask for your phone number, ask why it is needed. Whether it is a supermarket, an electronics store, or other vendor, it doesn’t hurt to ask that simple question. Is this for future surveys, for an alternative identifying number, or for marketing purposes? If you can’t get an answer here, opt out for surrendering it.
- If surrendering your mobile phone number is optional in a transaction, keep it to yourself. Once upon a time, phone numbers were necessary to complete sales but this is no more. If you can still close the transaction without giving your number, don’t. Mobile phone numbers have become akin to Social Security Numbers, home addresses, and credit card numbers. While mobile numbers may be regarded as the “least sensitive” of PII (Personally Identifiable Information), they can still be exploited. Share your number with friends, family, and associates, by all means. When it comes to vendors both online and in the brick-and-mortar world, and social networking sites like Facebook, protect your mobile phone number at all costs.
- If you decide to “play along” with your mobile phone, read the Terms of Use first. Yes, Terms of Use may not be a riveting read ala Nora Roberts or James Patterson, but the Terms of Use will let you know exactly what is being done with your phone number. Whether it is Last Call, 24, American Idol, or Personal Effects: Dark Art, it is important to know what is being done with your number once it is submitted to a database of any kind. Will you be contacted as part of a customer survey? Will your number be sold to other vendors? Will there be any liability to this vendor if your number is suddenly involved in fraudulent activity? These are answers you need before casting your vote or stepping across the Looking Glass to play in Wonderland.
(Editor’s Note: ID Guardian was notified by author J.C. Hutchins that phone numbers calling in as part of his interactive thriller Personal Effects: Dark Art are not logged or stored anywhere. We appreciate the feedback on this matter. While we do cite his work as an example of audience interaction, in no way are we insinuating that Mr. Hutchins, the publisher, or the examples cited in this article are doing so. We are merely posing questions that consumers should consider.)
Mobile phone numbers are essential in staying in touch with companions and colleagues both locally, nationally, and internationally, and as we have evolved into an “on-the-go-communication” culture, these numbers are easy to take for granted. Mobile phone numbers can be used as keys to other accounts essential in everyday life, and these accounts can lead back to more sensitive personal data. So when asked for your input in a reality TV show or if you’re invited to “play along at home” through your mobile phone, stop and find out as much as you can about who is getting your number and what will be done with it once this special event draws to a close. It’s great fun to take part in the action, sure, but the good times stop abruptly when a stranger suddenly calls.
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5 Comments to "When the “Last Call” Could Be The First Mistake"
1 | J.C. Hutchins
This is a resonant and well-crafted post — and it should certainly give folks pause before they submit their phone numbers to these entertainment experiences.
However, as co-author of “Personal Effects: Dark Art” (a transmedia experience you cite in your essay), I must point out that at no time are participants prompted to provide their phone numbers. Further, the calls players make to the experience’s working numbers (such as the number on the cover of the book) are not logged.
I would appreciate an edit in your essay regarding Personal Effects, in the interest of providing accurate information to your readership.
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3 | admin
So noted. We will make the amendment today. Thank you for taking the time to read our post, and for commenting.
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5 | Tony Mast
I think the film makers here have a half-considered idea regarding how they are going about producing ‘Last Call’.
I could address the security concerns of giving out your cell phone number to the theater staff, but you’ve addressed that fairly well in your post.
In terms of how they could secure data for the movie-goers, they have a few options.
My first two ideas presume that there is some sort of system that needs to be set up at the theater location to make this work. First, they could begin the film allowing the movie-goers to send a text message to defined number that would randomly select one of the movie-goers as the contact for the film’s protagonist. This would eliminate the need for a person to collect phone numbers and would add a layer of security to the process. This also assumes that the filmmakers or hardware owners aren’t going to take that data and use it for some other purposes. In looking at this option we can also look at it in terms of what is in it for the ‘creators’ and the ‘viewers’. I’ll use those simpler terms from here so as not to presume too much about who could be using the data collected.
For the creators, they are able to get an idea of how many people are opting in to the experience and a count of how many opt out. They can use the newly collected number to advertise for themselves or a third-party. They could survey viewers to get opinions on the film, demographics about the audience, etc. If they are E-Vil, they could also take the numbers and sell them to shady Mr. McTrenchcoat and claim that what they did was built into a poorly worded third-party information sharing agreement.
For the viewers, they are able to participate actively in the experience. They also can feel like they have their voices heard if they continue on after the film and fill out surveys. They might benefit from advertising from the creators or one of their third-party vendors.
All of this said, the second option for the creators would be to send along a secondary device or devices to be handed out to select viewers so that they might participate from that device. In my mind, it would basically be a limited function ‘phone’ that worked only with the gear for that film. This gives viewers the experience that the creators were going for without compromising security for the viewer. The benefits are similar to those outlined above, but on a much more limited scale. Creators could require the selected audience member to take part in a brief survey (perhaps using the device) to collect some demographic data before the device is ‘activated’ for the viewing. They could advertise during this process or even display ads on the device itself. A simple theft deterrent device could be installed in it to keep people from walking off with them, or perhaps they could be purchased by the viewers for an extra fee as they walk in as part of the “chance” to participate in the experience. The details of that could be worked out and the options are numerous and beyond the scope of my response. It would create a different level of involvement by the theater staff than the cell phone option did, but it would give the viewer more of a sense of security after they left the theater.
This goes beyond the scope of security, but I really find myself asking… would I want to watch the film if I weren’t the participant? I keep coming back to No. The fact is that there are just too many variables involved when you have one person deciding the fate of our movie-going experience. (See the latter works of George Lucas as a representative example.) All it takes is someone who has been to it before to get the reigns to the movie and who has no interest in enjoyment beyond being a jerk to ruin the film for the audience. Granted, one would presume the creators were talented enough to keep that from happening. Also, I would be leery of being the person who got the call. What if Chester McStabbington two rows back doesn’t like the way I ran the movie and decides he’s going to show off for his girlfriend by using me as a pincushion? This is a completely different kind of security concern.
No, I personally think if the creators want to really make a market for this kind of experience; it might better be served to a more intimate setting. This kind of thing has been done using DVD and a remote before, but nothing says it can’t be done using your smart phone and your networked Blu Ray player. All the information transmitted happens inside your own network and unless you opt in to transmitting your story path outside of your network, it all stays nice and secure (presuming you have a secure network at home.)
I’m sure I’ve missed or forgot a point or two I was going to make along the way, so don’t be surprised if I make an amendment or an addendum to this response.
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