Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!killer!vector!telecom-gateway From: salex@grad1.cis.upenn.edu Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Calling Party ID Suspension Message-ID: Date: 13 Mar 89 16:01:02 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Lines: 29 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 4 of 7 I would have no objection if the phone company were providing a service whereby a little box on the side of the phone were to indicate that Scott Alexander was calling. This would be the same service that one gets with your doorway peephole. However, Calling Party ID gives an additional piece of information. If my phone number appears on your CPI box, you can now call me. For the vast majority of the calls that I make, I don't mind giving out my phone number. Howerver, there are times when I make calls to businesses or governmental agencies when I want to retain anonymity. For instance, if I call Sears, I don't want to be added to their junk phone call list. I believe that I saw proposed on this list a more complex service where one would be able to block remote Calling Party ID. Instead of my number appearing on your box, you would get a *** sort of display. At this point, you may decide not to answer my call or to let your answering machine answer it. However, you would also have the option of requesting that the call be traced and my number become available to Bell if the call was of some illegal nature. This strikes me as a more reasonable balance of my privacy against your right to be secure against annoying, phone-based intrusions. As a side note, to make my biases somewhat more clear, if it does go through in Pennsylvania, I'll almost certainly get CPI for my phone. If Pa Bell were to take my suggestions as the solutions to all their problems, I would tend to carefully block all calls that I made to non-residences because I believe some large business is going to start collecting numbers fairly soon. Scott Alexander salex@linc.cis.upenn.edu