Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: munnari!stcns3.stc.oz.au!dave@uunet.uu.net (Dave Horsfall) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Calling Party ID Suspension Message-ID: Date: 23 Mar 89 03:21:05 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Reply-To: Dave Horsfall Organization: Alcatel STC Australia, North Sydney, AUSTRALIA Lines: 38 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 108, message 5 of 9 In article , desnoyer@apple.com (Peter Desnoyers) writes: | | Anyway, I think there are reasons that a law-abiding citizen might | occasionally want to be able to call anonymously, although I can't | think of one off the bat. A slightly contrived, but nonetheless valid example: You've just unwittingly witnessed a crime, a murder perhaps. They are MOST interested in eliminating you, and they probably have a mole in the police department. The result? Concrete shoes for you, m'boy... The trouble with being a law-abiding citizen is that not everyone else is. And a LOT of people just "don't want to get involved", but will come forward upon a guarantee of anonymity. A regular event in Australia is Project Noah, where you are invited to ring a special number if you have any information whatsoever, no matter how vacuous, on drug deals. It has resulted in successful prosecutions, but naturally some of the callers may not wish to identify themselves. Heck, some of them could be the drug-dealer's competition :-) Another example (which I certainly admit to doing): I want information on a competitor's product, so I play dumb and ring them up, asking them. Or I invite myself to their product seminars. I don't really want them to recognise my number (if Australia had caller ID, which we don't), yet it's not illegal. I'm not impersonating anyone after all, I'm just not volunteering my affiliations. In short, there are many legitimate reasons why a caller should not have to identify him/herself. You should have the right to refuse such calls, but those organisations that expect them will no doubt be tolerant. -- Dave Horsfall (VK2KFU), Alcatel STC Australia, dave@stcns3.stc.oz dave%stcns3.stc.oz.AU@uunet.UU.NET, ...munnari!stcns3.stc.oz.AU!dave Self-regulation is no regulation