Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: brian@apt.uucp (Brian Litzinger) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Caller ID (my rights) Message-ID: Date: 13 Sep 89 07:42:26 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 75 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 376, message 3 of 6 It seems rather simple to solve the caller ID problems discussed on this forum. Let us imagine the following scenario: I buy a phone and lease/rent a local and long distance service to perform various local and long distance services for me. Now I have particular things I wish to do with my phone. That is I wish to allow people to call me, and I'd like to call some people. (people includes businesses). In the previous utopian society I lived in, I was happy to have anyone who wanted to call me call. However, recently I've been contacted by an increasing number of people that I don't want to talk to. So I got an unlisted number and only gave it to people I wanted to talk to. Unfortunately, I still got calls from people I did not wish to talk with. In fact, I got even more calls from people I did not wish to talk to than I got with the previous number. Well, I've decided that I'm not going to talk with anyone who is not willing to identify themselves before I have to talk with them. Right now I'm up in the air as to whether you will have to provide your actual phone number to me or some other means of identifying yourself. In either case, if you aren't willing to provide your number or some sort of identifying substitute, I do not wish to talk with you. It is that simple, I will not talk to you unless you provide the identification. I'm happy and your rights are not being violated because you don't have to call me. And the fact that you don't want to provide the identification makes it very clear to me that I don't want to talk to you, and everyone is happy. There are also people I wish to call to whom I do not wish to provide my identification. I'll simply enter a code before the number and the phone won't send my identification before attempting to place the call. Now, if the receiving party doesn't accept unidentified calls, great! I'm happy and the recepient is happy! However, if the recipient is the type that still wants to take the call eventhough the identification is missing then great! They can simply pick up the phone and everyone is still happy! So everyone is happy. You and I and everyone else can choose to accept or ignore identified or unidentified calls. And you and I and everyone else can determine on a call by call basis whether or not our identification is sent before the call. We have now re-attained our utopian society. You are, however, still at a little risk from this solution. That is that I can do whatever I wish with you identification once I receive it. I could publish it or sell it. Well, if you are worried I'd do that or anything else you might not approve of, I'd strongly suggest you don't call me. I'm very much "an eye for an eye" sort of person, so I've now decided that your identification must be your phone number. Once, again you don't have to call me, and I don't want you calling me unless you provide your actual number. There are some problems with this system. For example, what if someone is calling from a public phone whom I wish to speak with. The obvious solution of a portable ID is useless because those ID's will be misused and we'll be back to square one. Or perhaps they will work well enough? There are solutions to the public phone problem, as there are solutions to the Caller ID question even if Caller ID is legislated out of existence. In fact, Caller ID has existed in our society, for those who can afford it, for far longer than the posters to this forum seem to suspect. -- <> Brian Litzinger @ APT Technology Inc., San Jose, CA <> UUCP: {apple,sun,pyramid}!daver!apt!brian brian@apt.UUCP <> VOICE: 408 370 9077 FAX: 408 370 9291