Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: alonzo@microsoft.UUCP (Alonzo GARIEPY)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Caller-ID Objections
Message-ID: <2431@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 27 Dec 89 20:08:42 GMT
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Reply-To: alonzo@microsoft.UUCP (Alonzo GARIEPY)
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 597, message 2 of 8


In article <2369@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com> writes:

> Is there no other aspect of telephony that has potential for abuse?
> What about junk calls in general? What about bunko scams that fleece
> the unwary? What about crank calls and threats? What about calls to
> detect whether someone is home by burglers? What about general
> harrasment? None of these involve Caller-ID.

Is this supposed to be an argument?!!  "We already have problems so
there is nothing wrong with amplifying them."

You are wrong that none of these abuses involves caller ID.  Caller ID
is attractive to people for the very reason that it solves some of
these problems.  The purpose of this discussion is the avoidance of
other, perhaps worse, problems.

You stray dangerously close to a definition of progress that has
nothing to do with improving people's lives.

> microsoft!alonzo@uunet.uu.net writes:

> > This is a good plan and should be given real thought.  Does anyone
> > know if there is some hidden agenda behind Caller-ID (conspiracies
> > everywhere...)?

> How many times does it have to be said; how loudly does it have to be
> yelled? Your number as a caller is circulated *all over the bloody
> network* all the time. People who do conspiracies *already have access
> to your number*. They don't need Caller-ID--THEY ALREADY HAVE YOUR
> NUMBER AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. Period.

Relax, John.  I was mostly kidding, but the question is valid.  Who
cares about police, we're talking really scary organizations like
Reader's Digest.