From: torerik@cs.washington.edu (Tor Erik Jeremiassen)
Newsgroups: seattle.general,pnw.general
Subject: Re: Caller ID's fundamental flaw
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:59:21 GMT
Article-I.D.: beaver.1992Aug26.205921.15586
Distribution: pnw
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

In article <MERLYN.92Aug26105759@romulus.reed.edu> merlyn@romulus.reed.edu (Randal L. Schwartz) writes:
>
>Caller ID is *not* like having a peephole in your door that allows you
>to see the face of the person.
>
>Caller ID *is* like havina peephole in your door that allows to you see
>*only* the License Plate number of the car that the person drove up in,
>or possibly nothing if they didn't use a car.
>
>Now, how many people can *you* identify strictly by license plate number?
>
>This is the fundamental flaw of Caller ID.  You don't get a *person* id,
>just a *channel-of-communication* id.
>
>And that's not sufficient (I won't argue the side for "is it
>necessary").

Caller ID gives you the originating phone number (possibly only the billing 
phone number). However, this is infinitly more than you get at present. I
consider caller ID as a very nice extension to distinctive ringing
(available in some areas of the country) in which (you guessed it) the phone
has a different ringing pattern if the call originated at a certain 
predetermined number. I don't see anyone climbing up on their soap box 
declaring how useless a feature that is. 

>
>Take this brief test:
>Quick.... the phone number on the screen is 777-0095
>
>is it:
>a) your friend?
>b) your friend at a friend's house?
>c) your significant other?
>d) your significant other at a friend's house?
>e) your significant other at the store needing a ride home because the car
>   broke down?
>f) your doctor with information about your blood test?
>g) a telemarketing slimeball?
>h) the same person that harrassed you 10 minutes ago, but at a new phone?
>
>See?

Let's see. It's 11 pm, I'm about to go to bed. The phone number is unknown 
to me. My SO is not at the store. The doctor would have called at a decent
time. Let the answering machine take a message. I'll check on it in the
morning. Of course, I run the risk of some relative having come unannounced
into town and is now calling me from the airport. Well, if they didn't
bother call in advance, clearly they would have had to consider the
possibility of not getting hold of me and planned accordingly. 

It's 7 pm and I'm just "hanging out". The phone rings. I just go ahead and
answer it. If it is a harrassing phone call, I now have the originating
number, which is a whole lot more than I would have had with no caller ID. 

>
>What's the *point* of caller ID, except as a way to get more revenue
>for the phone company, based on the "fear" factor and the "control"
>factor?  But it merely raises a lot of false hopes, and cannot expect
>to deliver what anyone needs from it.

It must be nice to know the needs of everyone.

>
>That's why *I'm* against Caller ID.  As if you couldn't tell.
>
>Screen your calls with answering machines or voicemail.  That's
>sufficient, really!

Sufficient for you perhaps. Do not make the assumption that everyone else
find those alternatives equally palatable. 

An answering machine can only be in one spot in the house at any one time.
I believe you can have as many # display units as you want to.

>
>(This doesn't even bring up my other major point: that it allows
>businesses to collect local phone numbers to sell to telemarketeers,
>but I'll save that for another discussion...)

Telemarketeers can get your phone number from any number of sources, one of
which is the phone company itself. As for companies you call, any company
that has an 800 service receives the phone number of every caller on that
line, often (if not always) in real time. Should 800 service be
discontinued? Remember, once they have your phone number, they could sell
it to some Tele-slime. 

Caller ID offered together with per call blocking and/or per line blocking
with per call unblocking allows those concerned about their privacy to 
remain anonymous (note your phone number is still delivered to recipients 
of your 800 number calls). By the way, given the assumption that caller ID 
was available, I would never accept a call to my private residence which
Was blocked. Would you open the door to someone that covered the peephole?


Tor Jeremiassen
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