Now We've Really Got Your Number

By Richard Lacayo

The new phone service known as Caller I.D. is a double-edged sword: it protects the privacy of some people, but at the expense of others. For about $6.50 a month, plus a one-time equipment charge of $45 to $80, customers get an electronic screen that displays the phone number of every incoming call. First offered four years ago in New Jersey by New Jersey Bell, Caller I.D. is now available in 20 states and under consideration in 13 others.

Caller I.D. is being touted as a way to combat obscene and annoying callers. It also gives florists, pizza shops and other delivery businesses a way to check that incoming orders are not pranks. Phone companies have been promoting the service as an electronic version of the peephole that lets apartment dwellers see who is knocking. "Caller I.D. protects subscriber privacy because it lets subscribers decide who to let into their house," says A. Gray Collins, a Bell Atlantic executive vice president.

But it also diminishes the privacy of callers. Some businesses use a commercial version of Caller I.D. that quietly displays the phone number of people who inquire about products, investments or insurance. The numbers can then be used to obtain other information about individual customers from consumer data bases. Privacy activists are also worried that the prospect of having phone numbers revealed will discourage anonymous police tipsters and callers to telephone hot lines that serve drug abusers, runaways and other people in trouble. Says Janlori Goldman of the A.C.L.U.: "The danger of Caller I.D. is that people lose control over when and to whom to give their telephone numbers."

Several states, including California, New York and Pennsylvania, have taken steps to prohibit Caller I.D. unless phone companies offer customers the ability to block their numbers from being displayed at any time. To pre-empt further moves by the states, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed that callers be allowed to block the display of their numbers on individual calls but not be able to demand that the phone company automatically block their numbers from being displayed at any time. The conflict may have to be resolved in the courts or Congress. The Senate has before it a bill that would permit the per-call restrictions proposed by the FCC. The House is considering a version that would allow the broader limits favored by some states. Telephone-company executives expect the two measures to be reconciled by the end of the year.

With reporting by Jerome Cramer/Washington