From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt)
Newsgroups: tx.politics
Subject: Re: Colorado get Caller ID.
Date: 25 Jan 93 08:49:20 GMT
Distribution: tx
Organization: Gordon Burditt

>Compare this to the concept of unlisted numbers.  They charge a fee to keep
>your number unlisted.  Why?  The cost of printing a directory goes DOWN with
>one less name to print, right?  The reason is that if the default was to not
>have a listed number, a phone book would be fairly useless.  You have to pay

Residential directories SHOULD be fairly useless.  In fact, I'd like to
see them go away entirely, but not by outlawing them.  Business directories
will stay useful because businesses are willing to pay for an entry in
the directory.

>a premium in this case to maintain your anonymity.

I'd like to see a corporate split between phone companies and telephone
directory companies.  Phone companies may NOT sell, give, or otherwise
communicate numbers to directory companies - it's up to the subscriber
to do it, unless the phone company IS the subscriber (hopefully it has
a customer service number, at least).  Directory companies get "directory 
assistance".  If you, a residential customer, move, it's up to you to 
contact a telephone directory company, if you want to be in one, and 
it's up to you to contact the old one and have your entry taken out.  
Whether you pay them, they pay you, or it's considered even is 
negotiable between you and the directory company.

>I'm wary about everything.  As long as I have a choice, I'm usually happy.
>I would likely dial the damn *76 if I was calling a business, or if I was 
>calling your house at 3:00 AM.  But to claim that a business doesn't have the
>"right" to offer a service that is in demand at the market price is absurd.

I think there would be considerable question of a company's right to
sell listings of, say, the locations of all the Model X video equipment
or Model Y cars in a given area, especially when the owners of such 
equipment did not give this company the information or permission to use it.  
But there would be plenty of demand from burglars and car thieves.
Then there's Wallet ID, in which banks sell information about which
customers leaving the bank have lots of cash.  Muggers would love it.
In the Caller-ID case, this comes down to an argument over who owns the
information.

>capturing your CNI for years.  Do you feel violated?  Are you also horrified
>that TRW will sell your credit history for a fee?

Actually, I am horrified at some of the information on the TRW credit
report - credit card companies consider much of this information (like
SSN, account numbers, addresses, etc.) to be private, in that they ask 
for it as a "password", so someone with my credit report can impersonate 
me to the credit card company.  This is as much a problem with credit 
card company stupidity as it is with TRW.

>That's right.  And you're free to set up tin cans and string with your friends
>and use that instead, 

Don't count on it, if the string crosses a public road.  They may even object
if the string crosses property lines of properties on the same block.

					Gordon L. Burditt
					sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon
Newsgroups: tx.politics