It seems unarguable that any telephone call is a potentially intrusive act, so that all the protection should be on the side of the recipient rather than the caller, but the European Union’s Council of Telecommunications Ministers yesterday decided to be completely neutral on the subject of Caller ID. They decided that although people should be able to prevent their number being flashed up on a Caller ID-equipped phone – our contention here is that anyone that doesn’t want their number recognized should simply use a pay-phone – people should also have a simple means to block all calls from callers not prepared to reveal their numbers. The ministers agreed this formula as a way of balancing privacy rights against the benefits of a tool that can be used to control unwanted phone calls or to track down callers in distress. According to Reuter, they agreed that phone companies should be able to override blocked numbers for organizations dealing with emergency calls or subscribers that want to trace nuisance or malicious calls. The legislation has to be approved by the European Parliament before final adoption. It is intended to protect privacy on telecommunications networks, especially advanced new Integrated Services Digital Networks. It would prohibit phone surveillance except where it had been legally authorized and it would give subscribers that do not want other people – to know who they are calling the right to have non-itemized bills. It also says personal data in printed or electronic telephone subscriber directories must be limited to what is needed to identify the subscriber, and subscribers should have the right to be omitted from a directory free. And people should have to give before they could be assailed by marketing calls from automated calling or from fax machines.
