[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
caller ID outrage from the FCC -- time to act (fwd)
>
>
> Forwarded message:
> Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 21:15:06 -0700
> >From: Phil Agre <[email protected]>
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: caller ID outrage from the FCC -- time to act
>
> I've enclosed two messages from the Privacy digest about an outrageous
> FCC plan to undermine crucial privacy protections on caller-ID systems
> for telephones. Caller-ID exists so that marketing companies can collect
> information on unwitting consumers, and those same companies have lobbied
> long and hard to eliminate simple, ordinary schemes to give people control
> over whether this information is made available from their telephones.
> Having lost this battle in many states, they have evidently moved to the
> federal level. But time remains for your comments to make a difference.
> Please read the enclosed messages, judge for yourself, and act.
>
> Phil
>
> Encl:
>
> Date: Sun, 15 May 94 13:23 PDT
> >From: [email protected] (PRIVACY Forum)
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: PRIVACY Forum Digest V03 #10
>
> PRIVACY Forum Digest Sunday, 15 May 1994 Volume 03 : Issue 10
>
> Moderated by Lauren Weinstein ([email protected])
> Vortex Technology, Woodland Hills, CA, U.S.A.
>
> ===== PRIVACY FORUM =====
>
> The PRIVACY Forum digest is supported in part by the
> ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy.
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 6 May 94 12:10:59 PDT
> >From: [email protected] (Carl Page @ DAD)
> Subject: FCC attacks
>
> Private Unlisted Phone Numbers Banned Nationwide.
> Law Enforcement Explicitly Compromised.
> Women's Shelters Security Threatened.
> Telephone Rules of 30 States Overturned.
> Direct Marketing Association Anticipates Profit.
>
> The FCC released its Report and Order And Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of
> March 29th, 1994 (CC Docket No. 91-281)
>
> With the arrogance that only federal bureaucrats can muster, the Federal
> Communications Commission has turned the clock back on Calling Number ID
> and privacy protection rules nationwide.
>
> Have you ever had any trouble giving a direct marketer your phone number?
> You won't any more. Your Per Line Caller ID blocking will be banned,
> thanks to the FCC Order which preempts the privacy protections provided by
> 30 states.
>
> The order carefully enumerates the concerns of law-enforcement agencies
> which need per-line blocking to do their jobs. It mentions the need
> Women's shelters have for per-line blocking. (A matter of life and death
> on a day-to-day basis) It mentions that the customers who attempt to keep
> unlisted numbers confidential will be certainly be thwarted. (Can one
> train all kids and house-guests to dial *67 before every call? Can you
> remember to do it yourself?)
>
> But the Order dismisses all of these problems, and determines that the
> greatest good for the greater number will be accomplished if RBOC's can
> profit a bit more by selling our numbers and if the direct marketers have
> less trouble gathering them.
>
> The FCC doesn't seem to trust consumers to be able to decide whether they
> want per-line blocking. It praises the $40 cost of an automatic *67 dialer
> as an appropriate disincentive that will benefit the nation by discouraging
> people's choice of per-line blocking.
>
> There was one part of the order I was pretty happy about, until I read it.
> The FCC has also banned the sale of numbers gathered by 800-900 number
> subscribers using the ANI system, unless they obtain verbal consent. (Note
> that no rules prevent sale of numbers from the presumably blockable CNID
> system.) The problem is that the only enforcement of the rule seems to be
> that the requirement must be included in the fine print of the ANI sale
> contract between the common-carrier and the ANI subscriber. So it seems to
> be up to the common-carrier to enforce a rule which is contrary to their
> financial interest. How can a person who suffers from publication or sale
> of their number recover compensation?
>
> The FCC is soliciting comments, due May 18th
> in their Further Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking on two issues:
>
> o Whether the Commission should prescribe more precise educational
> requirements.
> o Whether and how the policies adopted on caller ID should be extended to
> other identification services, such as caller party name or CPNI.
>
> I can think of some suggestions...
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 11 May 94 02:39:45 EDT
> >From: [email protected] (John R Levine)
> Subject: FCC order on interstate Caller ID
>
> [ From TELECOM Digest V14 #208 -- MODERATOR ]
>
> I picked up a copy of the FCC's Caller ID order, which is available by
> FTP as /pub/Orders/Common_Carrier/orcc4001.txt or orcc4001.wp. (Kudos
> to the FCC for making this info available so easily and quickly, by
> the way.)
>
> Much of the order is straightforward and not contentious, e.g.
> delivering CNID between local and long distance carriers is so cheap
> to implement that neither may charge the other for the data. They
> also note that per-call blocking is a good idea, and that *67 should
> be the universal code to block CNID delivery.
>
> But the arguments they list against per-line CNID seem, to me, to be
> astonishingly specious.
>
> There are three blocking options 1) per call for anyone, 2) per line
> for anyone, and 3) per line for special groups. The FCC thinks, not
> unreasonably, that it's a mare's nest to ask the telco to implement 3,
> since they have to determine who's in the special groups and who
> isn't. Then they say:
>
> 43. In the NPRM, we tentatively concluded that per line
> blocking unduly burdens calling party number based services
> overall by failing to limit its applicability to those calls for
> which privacy is of concern to the caller. The Commission noted
> that even in the case of law enforcement personnel, there may be
> a need to maintain calling number privacy on some calls, but that
> the same number may be used to telephone other law enforcement
> personnel, victims of crimes, cooperative witnesses, and family
> or friends. The Commission asserted that in these types of
> calls, calling number privacy is not needed and calling number
> identification can actually be a valuable piece of information
> for both the caller and called parties. The record reflects the
> useful nature of CPN based services, and the comments of
> Rochester illustrate that callers are likely to be interested in
> blocking only a small percentage of their calls. The comments of
> USCG illustrate the usefulness of caller ID to emergency
> services. In contrast, Missouri Counsel's analogy to unlisted
> numbers is inapposite because caller ID only permits parties
> called by the calling party to capture the calling party number,
> and then only if the calling party has not activated a per call
> blocking mechanism. We find that the availability of per call
> unblocking does not cure the ill effects of per line blocking.
>
> Moreover, in an emergency, a caller is not likely to remember to
> dial or even to know to dial an unblocking code. For the
> foregoing reasons, we find that a federal per line blocking
> requirement for interstate CPN based services, including caller
> ID, is not the best policy choice of those available to recognize
> the privacy interests of callers. Thus, carriers may not offer
> per line blocking as a privacy protection mechanism on interstate
> calls. We agree that certain uses of captured calling numbers
> need to be controlled, and address that issue infra.
>
>
> In other words, per-line blocking is a bad idea because subscribers
> are too dumb to unblock calls when they want to unblock them, although
> they're not to dumb to block calls when they want to block them.
>
> In paragraph 47 they note that where per-line blocking is offered,
> telcos use *67 as a blocking toggle, so users can't really tell what
> *67 does, but it doesn't seem to occur to them that the problem is
> easily solved by requiring a different code for unblock than for
> block. In paragraph 48 they wave their hands and say that people who
> care about privacy can just buy a box for "as little as $40.00 per
> unit" that will stuff *67 in front of each call. Thanks, guys.
>
> The docket number is 91-281, with comments due by May 18th. Comments
> must reference the docket number. Send ten copies (yes, 10) to:
>
> Office of the Secretary
> Federal Communications Commission
> Washington DC 20554
>
> Before you fire off a comment, please get a copy of the order, since
> there's a lot of material beyond what I've summarized. For people
> without FTP access, I've put them on my mail server. Send:
>
> send fcc-cnid.txt (for the text version)
>
> send fcc-cnid.wp.uu (for uuencoded compressed WP version)
>
> to [email protected].
>
>
> Regards,
>
> John Levine, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of PRIVACY Forum Digest 03.10
> ************************
>
>
>
> --
> Stanton McCandlish * [email protected] * Electronic Frontier Found. OnlineActivist
> "In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich
> Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of
> phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps.
> When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it."
> - Philip Elmer-Dewitt, "Who Should Keep the Keys", TIME, Mar. 14 1994
>