malcolm@apple.com (12/17/90)
Excerpts from an article in the {San Jose Mercury} published on
December 12:
Let your modem do the walking; Computer Directory has all listed
phones in US.
"Compuserve Information Services, a consumer-oriented electronic data
base in Columbus, Ohio, has introduced the first computerized national
phone book. It includes the name, address, ZIP code and phone number
of everyone in the country with a listed number -- more than 80
million households in all.
The directory, called Phonefile, offers the 725,000 Compuserve
subscribers unprecedented access to information about others,
including powers that surpass those of directory assistance operators,
such as the ability to search by last name and state, by ZIP code and
by phone number."
The article goes on to discuss the privacy issues and claims that the
directory was designed to "discourage the compiling of marketing
lists".
Malcolm
[Moderator's Note: Compuserve also noted this new service in a recent
issue of their magazine. I've tried it and it is quite good. 'Privacy
issues' are a nice red-herring here, but since all they do is list
numbers already listed in public records elsewhere, i.e. telephone
directories and courthouse records, privacy is not a consideration.
The proprietors of the service being sold through Compuserve have
stated they will remove your phone number and address from their data
base on your request if it is *non-published* and unavailable to them
in public records elsewhere. They will not remove it from their data
base if you are listed in a telephone directory somewhere and/or in
some other public records. You can search three ways through the data
base when using Compuserve: Put in a phone number and get the name and
address it is associated with; put in an address and get the phone
number(s) and names; or put in a name and address to get the phone
number listed. So finally, a single national electronic cross
reference directory. About time! CIS gets a hefty surcharge to use it
though; about ten bucks an hour in addtion to regular charges. PAT]
ruck@reef.cis.ufl.edu (John Ruckstuhl) (12/20/90)
In article <15489@accuvax.nwu.edu> malcolm@apple.com writes: > The directory, called Phonefile, offers the 725,000 Compuserve > subscribers unprecedented access to information about others, > including powers that surpass those of directory assistance operators, > such as the ability to search by last name and state, by ZIP code and > by phone number." > [Moderator's Note: > some other public records. You can search three ways through the data > base when using Compuserve: Put in a phone number and get the name and > address it is associated with; put in an address and get the phone > number(s) and names; or put in a name and address to get the phone > number listed. So finally, a single national electronic cross Wouldn't it be easy for them to define another key? Some (geneologists? detectives? credit bureaus?) would want to search by name or lastname only. I am unfamiliar with CompuServe -- could you submit a request, direct output to a personal file, logoff while request is processed, then download output during another session? Best wishes for the holiday season, John R Ruckstuhl, Jr University of Florida ruck@cis.ufl.edu, uflorida!ruck [Moderator's Note: And my best wishes to you and other readers also. I received a couple other lengthy replies in this thread today and because they are primarily privacy issues rather than telecom issues I passed them along direct to the Telecom Privacy mailing list. I have not plugged that list in a while, so here goes: For a continuing discussion on Caller*ID and other matters concerning privacy and the use of the telephone, subscribe to our companion journal which was established just for the purpose of handling the overflow of messages on these controversial topics. To subscribe, write to the moderator at 'telecom-priv-request@pica.army.mil'. And for discussions pertaining to the social and legal aspects of computer piracy, hacking and phreaking, subscribe to our other related mailing list, 'Computer Underground Digest' by writing the moderartors: 'tk0jut1@miu.bitnet'. CuD, as it is known for short, is also available as an altnet news group if you prefer. PAT]