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Activist Times Inc. Issue 022
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***** activist
times
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** SPECIAL
** NEW JERSEY
BELL ISSUE
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. 22.
vol. 3 ...
October-something-88
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Activist Times, Inc. ATI is a
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CLASS CALLING: A GOOD FEATURE OR
NOT. Getting Around Fascist Checksums
by Happy Hacker (412)
New Jersey Bell has announced that
they will make their Class Calling
Services available in selected areas of
New Jersey on November 1st, and expect
to offer it statewide by late next
year. State regulators in New Jersey
approved this group of services on
October 12, 1988 in a 2-to-1 vote.
Class Calling services include the
following: Call Block, in which
customers can block out calls from
certain numbers they do not wish to
receive calls from, Priority Call, in
which customers can have calls coming
from certain numbers they specify be
announced by a special ring, Repeat
Call, which allows continuous redialing
of the last number dialed, Select
Forward, which transfers calls from up
to 6 specified numbers to another
telephone number, Return Call, which
allows a person to automatically call
back the last telephone number that
called it, Call Trace, where customers
can automatically trace the last call
completed to their telephones by
dialing a three-digit code, and
Caller ID, where the originating number
of all incoming calls is displayed on
an LED device attached to the tele-
phone (The LED device must be purchased
separately for $70-80).
Class Calling features are affect-
ed by intralata calls only. Calls
originating from outside NJ or calls
crossing the 201/609 area will not
be affected by Class Calling features.
Also, Class Calling is currently
only available in Hudson County and
Atlantic City. Currently, only calls
originatiing and terminating in these
areas are able to utilize Class Calling
features. Once the service is avail-
able statewide, however, all intralata
calls will be subject to Class. And
although it's obvious that Crossbar
and Step-by-step switched areas cannot
utilize Class Calling, the number
of areas served by these switches in
New Jersey is extremely small.
Sounds great, doesn't it? Marvell-
ing at these wonders of technology?
Don't applaud it too quickly. All
telephone users should become
concerned with these services, as they
are an invasion of caller's privacy.
Also, the Call Trace feature
arises another concern mentioned by
many telecom enthusiasts, including
2600 Magazine: It seems that many
services that were done free of charge
by telephone companies are developing
charges. The Call Trace feature is
perhaps a herald of days to come where
people harrassed by annoyance calls
must PAY to have their harrassers
caught. The Call Trace feature permits
persons to trace calls, but at the cost
of $1 per each traceable call (The call
must be an intralata (non-long dis-
tance) call). The results of each
traceable call are released to the
autorities at a customer's request.
However, even when a call is deemed
"traceable" by NJ Bell and the customer
is billed $1 for the trace, the call
may not be indeed traceable, as was in
the case of a New Jersey man who paid the sum of $42 for call traces, only
to find out by the police department
that only approximately 5 of them
were "traceable".
However, worse yet are the impli-
cations of the Caller ID service, which
is what bulk of this article will
discuss. New Jersy Board of Public
Utilities president Christine Todd
Whitman voted against approving the
Class Calling services, pointing outut several problems she had with the
Caller ID service, in an article in
The Star Ledger, a NJ-based newspaper.
Since the Caller ID service causes
telephone users to unknowingly transmit
their telephone numbers by simply
placing a call, this can cause serious
problems for may people. Whitman
pointed out that many people make
job/work-related calls from home and
would not like their home numbers
disclosed to parties they call.
Doctors, social workers and other
professionals often make these types of
calls. Whitman also pointed out that people who need help may be discouraged
from calling anonymous helplines out
of fear of their telephone numbers
being identified. And let's take that
thought a step further: Persons who
might wish to anonymously give infor-
mation to local authorities might
be discouraged to do so, fearing they
might be indentified through disclosal
of their telephone numbers.
NJ Bell points out that one of
the benefits of Caller ID is that it
will discourage telephone "abusers",
i.e., people who place prank calls.
However, they fail to realize that it
will create a sort of anarchy, in which
people will confront callers who they
feel are "pranking" them by calling
them back. This can cause a simple
hangup call to escalate into a far
worse situation.
One example of such an escalation
can be seen in a real-life occurrence
described to this author. A girl
placing a local call dialed an
incorrect number. Realizing she had
dialed a wrong number, she hung up the
phone shortly after the called party
had picked up the phone. After hanging
up the phone, she looked for the
correct number to call. Suddenly, her
phone rang.
"Hello?", answered the girl.
"Don't EVER do that again", spoke
a threatening voice into the phone.
Yes, that DID happen. And, the girl
realized, after being frightened by the
phone call, that she had indeed mis-
takenly dialed the number of an
acquaintence who susbscribed to Caller
ID.
Caller ID will undoubtedly create
many more uncomfortable situations
like the one described above. And,
a strange sort of telephone "anarchy"
will result, as NJ Bell refuses to
step into any sort of phone harrassment
situation once the Caller ID subsciber
has confronted a person he feels is
placing harassing calls to him.
Besides the obvious gross
violations of privacy to all citizens,
BBS callers are especially adversely
affected by Caller ID. Think of the
result if BBS sysops begin to subscribe
to Caller ID to identify incoming
calls to their BBSs. Many BBS callers
enjoy bulletin boards due to the
anonymity associated with calling them.
They expect privacy. Many BBS callers,
for one reason or another do not wish
to disclose their identity of phone
number to other BBS users, even sysops.
Caller ID can be used against these
people to identify them against their
wishes. Also, BBS sysops subscribing
to Caller ID can instantly check the
validity of personal information left
by a new user on his system. If a BBS
sysop catches a user leaving false
personal information, he can relay
this information to other area sysops.
The result is that the BBS user who
just wishes for a little privacy can
find himself blacklisted from many
bulletin boards. Caller ID will can also seriously
affect the activites of telecom
enthusiasts and casual hackers as well.
Small, local computer systems with
little security may subscribe to Caller
ID to combat hackers from entering
their systems. Long distance services
such as MCI, and packet switched
networks such as Telenet and Tymnet
may subscribe to Caller ID to identify
all incoming calls to their systems.
Consider the implications!
So, sounds pretty bad, eh? So,
you don't want your calls selectively
forwarded, announced by special rings,
blocked out, returned, or otherwise
traced? There are ways around Class
features! One way is to use an
alternate carrier while placing a call.
Alternate carriers are often used
to place intralata toll calls for
economical reasons. But, the easiest
way to combat Class features is to
simply add a "1" plus the area code
you are calling while placing intralata
calls. For example, if you are in
the 201 NPA, and you are calling the
number 656-9999, simply dial
1-201-656-9999. By dialing your call
in this fashion, it will override all
Class Calling features, including
Caller ID and Call Trace. Or, simply
plug into your neighbor's line with
some alligator clips while placing
calls that you do not wish to be traced
to you. The more people that are
aware of these methods, the more
privacy the public will remain to have.
Go to it, friends...
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:ATI, changing the way people :
read for over 2 years.
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#b#b#b#b#b#b
el section # Living Colour
de musica b Que Idea!!!
b#b#b#b#b#b#
Living color is a 3-piece
all-black heavy metal band. They're
awesome.
The guitarist rocks out, I can tell
you that. And the lyrics are what metal
SHOULD be. I've only heard one cut so
far, so shouldnt judge the guys yet.
I was so excited I just had to tell
you. Living Colour are awesome. s/
prime
PAP, prime anarchist productions,
numbers run, for this morning, 7:50:24
am.
1988.
516-922-wine dial a dirty joke.
201-644-2335 ap newsline for the blind
415-995-2606 Reality Hackers magazine
619-375-1234 time and temp
800-833-news National student news ser
303-499-7111 Atomic clock
212-966-9494 National Lawyers Guild, NY
212-966-5000 NLG, World branch
401-351-7722 Laywers Guild, Prov
TO THE EDITORS:
Why is Manuel Noriega trading drugs
to Bush for guns?
JS (512)
Well, that's it for 22. The special
New Jersey Bell issue. Hope you liked
it, and remember, Cybe out.
