Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Sun, 23 Jun 91 21:41:36 -0500 From: Neil Rickert Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Congressional Panels Okay Bills Against Caller*ID Message-ID: Organization: Northern Illinois University Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 484, Message 6 of 6 Lines: 28 In article TELECOM Moderator quotes: > According to Representative Matthew Rinaldo (R-NJ) "The desire of > people to have privacy in their homes and not be intruded on by > unwanted calls is not as important as the right of people who wish to > make calls anonymously." I sure hope the representative will be consistent. He should propose legislation to ban peepholes in doors. After all we must preserve the rights of anonymous visitors. He should also propose legislation to invalidate all state laws which require that number plates be displayed on automobiles. After all, we must preserve the rights of people who wish to drive anonymously. More seriously, if caller ID had been built into the phone system from day 1 by Alexander Bell, and someone were proposing ID blocking, these same legislators and the ACLU would be up in arms opposing the blocking and quoting the constitution in support of their case. Actually I don't mind the caller ID blocking, on one condition -- that the phone company make it possible for me to never receive any calls where the caller has selected blocking. Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115 +1-815-753-6940