Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!labrea!jade!ucbvax!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor From: haas%gr@cs.utah.edu (Walt Haas) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Re: Telephone Privacy Issues Message-ID: <1174@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM> Date: Sun, 6-Dec-87 01:35:38 EST Article-I.D.: hplabsz.1174 Posted: Sun Dec 6 01:35:38 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 11-Dec-87 05:01:23 EST Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM Lines: 24 Approved: taylor@hplabs Joel Rives writes: > Perhaps, fighting fire with fire WILL get results in this instance. > Suppose that you are annoyed by a computer generated phone sales.... Well I was, and after some discussion on misc.consumers a couple of years ago I adopted the policy that when I get an advertising call, I simply put the receiver down next to the phone and go back to what I was doing. The other day I did this, and when I noticed that the caller had finally hung up I hung up too. The phone rang. It was the same lady, and she told me that she thought I was awfully rude to put her on hold! I said it seemed fair to me, since she was interrupting my work and wasting my time, so why shouldn't I have the right to do the same to her? She replied in a distraught-sounding voice that she was being monitored for productivity, and might lose her job as a result. I encouraged her to hang up quickly when she was put on hold, but to no avail. Then we started to discuss how they get the numbers to call. She said that Mountain Bell sells lists of residential phone numbers, which are loaded into her computer and dialed by the machine. This list includes unlisted residential numbers, but not business phones. She spent about half an hour trying to convince me that telephone solicitors perform a valuable public service. I wonder what her productivity monitors thought of that? Cheers -- Walt