Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!killer!vector!telecom-gateway From: albert%endor@husc6.harvard.edu (David Albert) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Calling Party ID Suspension Message-ID: Date: 13 Mar 89 16:18:09 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Reply-To: David Albert Organization: Aiken Computation Lab Harvard, Cambridge, MA Lines: 37 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 87, message 3 of 7 >Yes, it was in the [Chicago Tribune] on Sunday. It really makes me >sick to think about the whiners and complainers who feel they are >somehow entitled to invade *my privacy* anytime they please by making >phone calls anonymously; that you or I have no right to know who is >calling us before we answer the phone. While I agree that I do not have the right to invade your privacy, and that you have the right to know who is calling before picking up the phone, I believe that at least one of the proposed solutions would safeguard your right without causing what I consider to be extremely important problems. If I am able to block my number from being sent, you could see from your calling-number-ID display that I have done so and refuse to answer. I imagine that the technology could be put in place that would even keep your phone from ringing under these circumstances. Nevertheless, calling-number-blocking MUST be made available to people who want to call the Samaritans, the police (at their business number), the IRS (or almost any government office), and arguably to people calling any business number. It really makes me sick to think about the whiners and complainers who so callously want to throw away *my right to privacy* when making calls to provide information to or ask questions of people who have *invited* these calls, especially when such information could later be matched to my name and used for telephone solicitation, blackmail, criminal charges, etc. >So much for the privacy rights of the rest of us. Where people get the idea >they should be able to hide behind their phone is beyond me. People should be able to remain anonymous when calling businesses, government bureaus, and talk and help lines. If such lines could be permanently barred from receving calling-number-ID info, fine, otherwise some sort of blocking system must be developed. Again, you are free to completely ignore (or even never be made aware of) anonymous calls. David Albert |"To hardly know him is to know UUCP: ...{think, rutgers}!harvard!albert | him well." Cary Grant, in INTERNET: albert@harvard.harvard.edu | _The Philadelphia Story_