Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: cdaf@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Charles Daffinger) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Caller ID Privacy Question Message-ID:Date: 18 Aug 89 02:45:12 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: cdaf@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Charles Daffinger) Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington Lines: 45 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 309, message 1 of 8 In article bnick%aucis.UUCP@mailgw. cc.umich.edu (Bill Nickless) writes: > [...] >And if we can stop these obscene phone calls without getting Big Brother >involved, more power to Caller ID. Since it's now technically feasible, >let's do it. In 10 years people will wonder how they ever got along without >it. Secretaries can get written or digital record of who calls, without >getting numbers mixed up. All kinds of other benefits present themselves. >Just because something is new doesn't mean it's bad. My second line is unpublished and unlisted for a reason. I don't want other people to have it. Not secretaries, not friends... nobody. According to a posting in the Digest a while ago, ATT goes to great lengths to protect the privacy of such a number. If it were to show up on the screen of whomever I'm calling, that would be silly, would it not? Something which *could* be acceptable to some may be the option of using some kind of an alternate code for those who so desire. Thus, instead of your unlisted/unpublished number appearing on the screen of the receiver of the call, an alternative code (certainly a non-telephone number) would appear. This identification number would be unique and associated with your particular number. If somebody has an unlisted/unpublished phone number then this associated number is treated in the same way as the phone number: with the same level of confidentiality. This way, when you make a call people can identify *who* is making the call once they know that number comes up when you call, while preserving the privacy of your telephone number. In the case of harrassing phone calls from unlisted/unpublished numbers using such a feature, the telephone company could cross-reference the code for the harrassing calls with its telephone logs. If indeed these match, the telephone company alone can easily find the phone from which these calls originated. But then, the harrasser could be from a pay phone... -charles -- Charles Daffinger >Take me to the river, Drop me in the water< (812) 339-7354 cdaf@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu {pur-ee,rutgers,pyramid,ames}!iuvax!cdaf Home of the Whitewater mailing list: whitewater-request@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu