Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: croll@wonder.enet.dec.com Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Caller ID at American Express Message-ID: Date: 17 Oct 89 13:35:59 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 34 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 458, message 1 of 10 At the risk of being the straw that broke the camel's back... In Telecom V9:454, John Levine (johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us) writes: >By the way, I called American Express last week to argue about my >bill. Amex has been reported to have an 800 version of Caller ID that >looks up the phone number of each call and translates it to the >caller's card number. When the person who answered asked me for my >card number, I asked whether she could tell it from my phone number >and she said she couldn't. Either she was lying or they've turned it >off. I remember reading in Forbes (I think, it was some time ago) that American Express Customer Services folks used to greet callers by name as they answered the phone, taking advantage of the features of the 800 version of Caller ID to automatically look up the caller's account. They no longer do this, because it was so disconcerting to their customers. They received so many complaints from enough people that they either turned it off, or instructed their people to no longer say anything about it. The article didn't say explicitly whether they had turned it off, however. From this, my own conclusion is that the reaction to caller ID isn't so much the explicit invasion of privacy as the fear that Big Brother is always watching. I know that this is just about the same thing, but there is a difference between the abstract feeling that your privacy isn't perfect and having your nose rubbed in it every time you make a phone call. After all, many times when you call someone you wind up telling them who you are, anyway; having them greet you with your name before you even get a word out is, to say the least, disconcerting. It puts the control of the conversation immediately into the callee's hands, instead of the caller's. John