Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!purdue!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway
From: GABEL@qcvax.bitnet
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Caller ID Linked to Decline in Harrassing Calls
Message-ID: 
Date: 14 Aug 89 04:38:00 GMT
Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US
Lines: 173
Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us

The following article appeared on page 1 of the New York Times,
Saturday, 8/5/89. (copyright 1989 New York Times)

Harrassing Calls Show Decline When Phones Identify Callers
  by Calvin Sims

   The number of obscene or harassing telephone calls has fallen sharply
in the first test of a system that allows people to see the number of the
phone the call was dialed on before they answer.

   The test in Hudson County, N.J., showed a 49 percent drop in requests
to track such calls after the system was in place. Telephone companies
welcome the results, hoping that they will increase demand for the caller-
identification service. Such systems are seen as a significant potential
source of telephone revenue but they have been slow to win acceptance from
regulators because of criticism that they invade the privacy of callers.

   The caller-identification system offered in New Jersey displays the
number of the calling party on a small digital screen attached to the tel-
ephone. The telephone subscriber can also notify the NJ Bell Telephone Co.
to make a computer record of where and when a harassing call originated by
dialing a code when the call is received. And, by pressing a code, the phone
owner can block calls coming in from a designated number, making it impossible
for a harasser to make repeated calls from one phone.

   The Hudson County test was started in late 1987 and has been widely
available since the beginning of this year. The number of requests the
phone company received to trace calls has declined sharply there. The
236 requests received in the six months that ended April 30, for example,
amounted to a 49% decline from the similar six-month period two years
earlier, when no one in the area had caller identification, NJ Bell said.

   "This technology, by its mere presence, is having a chilling effect on
the number of crank phone calls that people are reporting," said James
W. Carrigan, a spokesman for NJ Bell. "The word is out: people now have the
ability to see the phone number of the caller, and many would-be obscene
callers are afraid to mess around on the telephone."

   The service may spread rapidly. Phone companies in New York, Pennsylvania,
California and the several Southern states served by the Southern Bell
Telephone and Telegraph Company plan to introduce the service.

   The phone companies are enthusiastic about the revenue potential. New
Jersey Bell, which charges $6.50 a month for the service, said its surveys
showed that about 42% of its customers, or 1.2 million people, received
annoyance calls last year and that 72,000 complaints were filed.

   Many phone companies, however, are moving more slowly than they expected
because of the privacy issues the technology raises. Critics contend that
the systems violate the rights of phone users who wish simply to keep their
numbers private.

   The critics also say that caller identification will make the public less
likely to use confidential social services like AIDS hotlines or shelters
for battered women. And consumers phoning businesses might find their numbers
being passed on to telephone marketing concerns without permission.

   The phone companies respond that the caller identification system increases
privacy because it gives the called party an "electronic peephole," allowing
them to answer only those calls from recognized numbers.

   Although there was strong opposition to the caller-identification system
from the American Civil Liberties Union, the New Jersey Board of Public
Utilities allowed New Jersey Bell to introduce the service because of the
initial success of the phone company's trial run.

   For billing, telephone companies keep a monthly computer log of all
local and long-distance phone calls. Such records take about a month to
process. The call-trace system allows the subscriber to create an immediate
record of harassing calls.

   Several New Jersey residents have used the system to rid themselves of
harassing calls. Some have recognized the phone number of the harassing
caller as that of a relative of friend and asked the known harasser to
stop. Other subscribers who were unfamiliar with the number of the harassing
call that appeared on the display screen informed callers that their phone
numbers could be seen, and the harassers quickly hung up.

   A family in Middlesex County used the computerized call tracing feature
of the system to press charges against a man who called their home about
20 times a night for three months. The family made it possible for the
phone company to record the number, date and time of the calls.

   "The guy had seen my daughter at a party, and he would call our number
and say the most profane sexual things about her," said the father, who
asked that the family not be identified. "It got to the place where we
just took the phone off the hook in the evenings."

   When the case went to trial, New Jersey Bell provided the judge with its
computer records. The defendant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year
on probation.

   Experts said the case is typical in that the caller knew the victim.
"Over all, we have dealt with very few perverts because most obscene phone
callers are old boyfriends who have been dumped," said Martin Harrington, a
detective at the Buffalo Police Department who specialized in telephone
harassment cases. "The caller-identification device would probably cut
my caseload by about 80% because the greatest fear of any obscene caller
is having their identity revealed."

   Making an obscene or threatening phone call is a misdemeanor in most
states. In New York State, conviction carries a maximum sentence of a
year in jail and a $500 fine.

   More than 19,000 customers in New Jersey have signed up for the caller
identification service. By the end of the year, the service will be
available to about 66% of New Jersey Bell's 2.8 million customers.

   Among the localities that will have the service are Asbury Park,
Atlantic City, Camden, Elizabeth, Hackensack, Lakewook, Montclair,
Morristown, New Brunswick, Newark, Paterson, Plainfield, Red Bank,
Toms River and Trenton.

   Phone users in other states may have to wait longer than expected
because of the growing privacy debate. Pacific Bell, the big local
phone company in California, was scheduled to offer caller identification
later this year but recently said it would await until 1991 to consider
the privacy issues.

   "We have the obligation to our customers to thoroughly explore the
issues surrounding this new technology before we install it in our
network," said Ethan Thorman, Pacific Bell's product manager. "At first
the system looked like it was free of controversy so we rushed ahead to
deploy it. But then we stepped back."

   The California Legislature is considering a bill that would require
phone companies that offer the caller identification system to include
a blocking feature that would allow the person making the call to block
his or her phone numbers by dialing a special code. The party being
called would receive a message on the digital screen indicating that
the call is a private one.

   The bill, which has already passed the California Assembly and goes
before the Senate later this year, would require the phone companies to
provide the blocking service at no cost.

   "A caller-identification system that does not have a blocking function
endangers the lives of battered women," said Gail Jones, director of
Women Escaping a Violent Environment, a counseling center based in
Sacramento, Calif. "The woman or her counselor will often contact the
batterer to let him know that she is all right."

   A similar battle is developing in Pennsylvania, where the Bell
Telephone Company of Pennsylvania hopes to introduce caller identification
by the end of the year. As in California, critics are arguing that the
service should come with a feature that allows a caller to prevent the
recipient from seeing where the call originated.

   "The introduction of this service poses a variety of privacy intrusions
that the phone companies have been well aware of for some time," said Dan
Clearfield, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Consumer Advocate Office.

   "That's why they designed the blocking mechanism into the original
caller-identification software."

  New York Telephone plans to offer the service first in Poughkeepsie,
N.Y., and parts of Vermont later this year. A New York Telephone
spokesman said that the company hopes to offer the service in other
New York cities in 1990 but that the introductions would be based on how
well the service does in the initial offerings.

   A spokeswoman for Southern New England Telephone Company siad that
plans to start offering call-trace and call-block services in Connecticut
later this year but that it has delayed offering caller identification
because of the privacy issue.

   The phone companies say the inclusion of a blocking mechanism may
make caller identification far less appealing to consumers.

=============================

Dan Blumenthal
Gabel%QCVAX.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU