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From: epstein@sunc4.cs.uiuc.edu (Milt Epstein)
Subject: Re: Telephone Caller ID's
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Date: Mon, 01 Apr 1991 09:25:19 GMT
References: <13801@asylum.SF.CA.US> <1991Mar29.154847.16915@engin.umich.edu> <1991Apr1.035451.25308@netcom.COM>
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In <1991Apr1.035451.25308@netcom.COM> aahz@netcom.COM (Aahzmandius) writes:

>One thing which no one has mentioned so far is the analogy between a
>phone call and someone coming up to your door and ringing the bell.
>It's easy for you to refuse to answer the door, take their picture and
>show it to the police if someone persists in harassing you, etc.
>Shouldn't you be able to do the same thing with a phone?

Actually, the analogy between the phone and the front door has been
brought up -- at least it was in the recent discussion of caller ID in
misc.consumers.  And your example of taking the picture is more
analogous to call trace than plain caller ID (call trace, as I
understand it, is where you push a button after receiving the
harassing call, and the call is traced and the information is
forwarded to the police).

Some things that came out of the phone/front door analogy:

1) Although you can see who is at your front door, this does not
guarantee that you can identify them, or find out any further
information about them (as would be the case with caller ID)

2) The person at the front door is not required to show identification
-- you can refuse to answer or tell them to leave if they don't, but
you cannot force them to show identification

-- 
Milt Epstein
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois
epstein@cs.uiuc.edu