ziegast@eng.umd.edu (Eric W. Ziegast) (03/30/91)
Charles Hymes writes in alt.privacy and comp.org.eff.talk: >For privacy reasons I am against this caller ID service, but one >leagal/commercial point that is largely overlooked is that the phone >company is allowing your telephone to be used for someone elses >commercial purposes, without your consent or control. Given that this >information has commercial worth, I belive that one can argue that >phone company is depriving the caller of rightful income, and can be >sued for. I live in the Wash. DC, a place where Caller ID has already been imple- mented and I've heard of no adverse effects yet. The first commercial place I've seen it used is Dominos Pizza. They use it to scan incoming calls against numbers from which they receive bad checks. While I don't think this was one of the intended uses for this service, you can't blame them. One of the advantages of Caller ID is that it provides protection against obscene phone calls, scams, and other crimes & misdemeanors. But how about those who prefer anoninimity? It lessens the effective- ness of unlisted phone numbers. As a compromise, C&P Telephone, the local company here, provides operator assisted number blocking on a call by call basis for a fee ($.45?). If you were unlisted, how would you like to fork out $.45 to someone just to make sure your number isn't possibly displayed? Let's now consider some possible abuses of Caller ID. While some of these may be far-fetched, don't be surprised if these situations can pop up in the future. Unless there are efforts to control the use of Caller ID, one just might experience some of the scenarios below. Somewhere people have to draw the line. 1. Your number is a commodity which can be used by direct marketers. Joe Doe calls the 800 number shown during the commercial for those neat triple-edge car wipers he saw on TV. A week later, he gets a phone call... "Hello JOSEPH DOE of WASHINGTON DC. We at XYZ gift company would like to extend to you a one-time offer for XYZ's new improvered dashboard heat shields. Our records show that you've recently bought ABC's triple edged wipers. We feel you are a good can- didate for our special offer. For more information, press [1] now or press [2] if you'd like to hear more annoying sales pitches about our other products..." 2. Sales people can call you back (the proverbial foot in the door). Joe called several computer dealerships in the region to see which was the best place to buy a PC for his kids. The next day, a sales-person from one of those companies (one he really didn't like) calls him and tries another pitch for his product. Joe refuses. The salesperson then asks (subtly demands) to know why you didn't choose to buy from him. Joe never thought he'd have to explain himself. 3. Advertisement One of Joe's kids recently called a 900 sex line. Joe is surprised one day to get a call from some lusty woman saying... "Ohhhhh baby, call me again. I'm waiting for you. 1-900-GOOD-SEX" If Joe decides to press charges (for obscenity) the sex line lawyers can say, "They called us first." 4. Who knows who gets your phone number? Joe's also an alcoholic. (What a coincidence!) Now that he has seen how people can trace his call back, he thinks twice about calling the anonymous help line. He fears that somehow the police will find out about his call. How about a police anonymous tip line? Joe reports that he's seen a cop in his neighborhood distribute drugs. If they've got caller ID on the anonymous line, and that dirty cop has connections with some- one who works the telephone lines (or has access to the call records), Joe might be in for a big surprise. [I know, you think I've seen too many cop shows. Well, I have.] 5. Big brother will find you Imagine a computer database used by the Feds to track people down using phone numbers. Tapping into Caller ID is alot easier and faster than having to trace a call. 6. The Caller ID compatable answering machine I haven't seen anything like this yet, but in this day and age, it's very feasable. Think about it - an answering machine that works differently depending on who is calling. For a set of numbers, you can select what can be done... Bill companies/collectors "You've reached 555-2398. I'm off to Disney World." People you don't want to hear from "Go away. Leave a message if you want, but my machine is programmed to fast worward through it when I scan my messages." People you do want to hear from <RING.....RING.....RING.....RING.....> "Sorry, I'm not in right now. Please leave a message at the boop." While this answering machine has its advantages it certainly abuses the intent of Caller ID. I claim no patent to such a machine, so if you're an enterprising mold-sucking cockroach, feel free to make one. >I wonder what it takes to declare personal information as "property" I >know celberaties can do so for thier voices and likenesses, but I >would like to be able to do so for my name, address, and personal >data, and say "This information is the (property,copyright etc) of >bla bla and may not be reproduced or recorded in any media for >commercial purposes without the express written consent of bla bla." I think an extension of the copyright laws would be needed. This sounds like a bad solution. If you're someone trying to do business with me, I'd be more prone to turn on my answering machine in response. Talk to a lawyer if you're really serious about it. I see a much better solution than Caller ID and I'll go into it in a future posting, but for now I've got some work to do. I haven't yet thought it out much either. Eric Ziegast University of Merryland DISCLAIMERS This information is copyright by bla bla and may not be reproduced or recorded in any media for commercial purposes without the express written consent of bla bla bla or anyone affiliated with bla bla. But feel free to do so anyway. All wrongs reserved. Disney World, Dominos, CallerID and C&P are most-likely trademarks. I made up the number 1-900-GOOD-SEX off the top of my head. The X symbol is a trademark of X-Open and *is* used without their consent.
brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) (03/30/91)
I think that people do have a right to know who's calling them, that people have the right to place anonymous calls, and that people have the right to refuse anonymous calls to the extent that they don't even ring. As such, the tarriff should work this way: a) Caller-ID is the default, accept any call is the default. Optionally, caller-ID is the default to residence phones, anonymous is the default to business phones. b) Any caller may make a call different from the default, for no extra charge, through a simple prefix on the phone number. c) The phone company should, for no extra charge, allow any customer to request the blocking of anonymous calls. Anonymous emergency calls could still be placed through the operator. Any other services can be extra charge. d) The caller-ID packet should include some extra info, such as the type of phone (residence, business, payphone, cellular) and the suffix digits. (I feel that the way the phone company is running out of area codes, it will soon have to introduce suffix digits on phone numbers to identify everything from faxes, cellular, ident-a-call, and extensions in a PBX. One 7 digit telno per customer, that's it.) I think such a system addresses almost all concerns, except the concern of the unlisted subscriber who doesn't want to give the phone number out. There are two responses to this. One is simply, "tough -- you want to call somebody who blocks anonymous calls, they deserve to know who you are." The other, more complex, would be to allow unlisted subscribers -- or any subscriber -- to have the ANI packet give a code number which is not their phone number, but something which maps to it via a mapping stored and kept confidential by the telco. Thus you could still identify who the caller is if the call multiple times, and the police would be able to find out the identity of the caller. Indeed, this system could work for all anonymous calls, not just for those of unlisted subscribers. I think in such a world that most people would tend to call residences with ANI active, as most residences would block anonymous calls. Most businesses would gladly accept anonymous calls -- it would be rude not to, and who wants to turn down business. Other businesses, however, such as pizza places and mail-order order-desks, which are going to take down your phone number anyway, would not accept anonymous calls and nobody would be bothered by this. -- Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
galt@baby.dsd.es.com (Greg Alt - Perp) (03/31/91)
One positive aspect of caller ID that I haven't heard mention yet is harassing
telemarketers... Imagine one of the computerized tm's calling you at 9 or 10
in the morning when you wanted to sleep in... For revenge, set your modem to
dial their number until it picks up. Then play some recorded message until they
hangup. Then, call back... Or, if a real human telemarketer calls, ignore
everything they say, and start carrying on a small-talk conversation until they
hangup. Then call back and keep talking...
Gregtom.jennings@f111.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG (tom jennings) (04/11/91)
I like Caller ID, if: (1) I can block it when I dial, and be assured
that the ID is not actually transmitted, regardless of the recipient, even (or especially) the police etc. Exceptions like "all 911 calls get caller ID" would be OK if it were simply state up front.
(2) Caller ID, or anonymity is flagged on all incoming calls.
If I'm so paranoid thgat I wont pick up the phone unless I know the
number, that's not a Caller ID issue. That function also happens
to be the most useful to me -- I'm busy, but I'll answer if my mother
calls or something.
Too much of what I've seen in here is confusion as to responsibilities -- wanting "the system" (you define) to take care of things for you.
Remember the Andy Rooney "issue", over his homophobic & cacist remarks
? Depressingly few people thought over the difference between
wanting free expression, and wanting PERSONAL REVENGE on someone they
thought was a jerk.
I want no law saying Rooney can't say that crap. Personally, I'd love
it if he lost his job. THE TWO ARE COMPLETELY SEPARATE.
The analogy holds with much -- most -- discussion over Caller ID here.
The "what if" stuff will lead you *anywhere* you choose to go, and
hence is not useful in determining whether/how to do Caller ID.
Except for law'n'order types who want another way to poke into
peoples lives.
--
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