Caller ID -> person mapping

[mark@darkside.med.unc.edu (Mark C. Rendina)]

  >>Anonymous? Not at all!!! And here's why.
  >
  >>Whenever you call a 1-800 number, your phone number is captured and
  >>forwarded to the company for billing purposes.
  >
  >Absolutely correct!! So be sure to call the 800 number from a pay phone. This 
  >brings up a point, though. Wouldn't it be risky to build a database using 
  >caller-id for something like HIV status? Who knows whose phone you are calling 
  >from. If they don't have your name, they can't be sure who called from any 
  >particular phone.
  >
  >Just a thought...
  
  Connie:
  
  You raise a valid point.  The answer to your first question, "isnt' it risky
  to build a database on CallerID numbers" is clearly Yes.  Mapping a Phone
  number to an individual can be fraught with difficulties, i.e. multiple people
  living at the same residence, calling from business phones, etc.  
  
  However, the follow-up question  is: Will that stop them from building such 
  a database?  I doubt it.  Databases have been built on far flimsier and less 
  reliable data.
  
  Marketers think in terms of "response rate" and mapping a phone number to an 
  address is quite easy.  This would be a way to create yet another mailing 
  list of "higher risk" HIV people, though I have no evidence that this is
  being done (yet?).
  
  I wonder if there is a press story in there ....
  
  Mark