Bill Would Let Customers Block Caller ID Service

A Senate bill was introduced Monday that would require telephone companies to allow customers to block Caller ID, a new service that displays a caller’s phone number before the receiver is picked up.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said he was in favor of the new technology but that customers also should have the option of not giving out their phone numbers.

“A privacy balance must be struck,” Kohl said in introducing the Telephone Privacy Act of 1990.

“Who decides whether the caller will reveal his or her number?” Kohl said. “I think the decision must rest with the caller.”

Caller ID, which has been available in New Jersey for more than a year and is just beginning to be offered in Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, uses a small terminal that displays the numbers of incoming calls.

The number display device costs $50 or more to purchase, and the Caller ID service costs about $7 a month.

Privacy rights advocates claim it is an Orwellian intrusion on individual privacy unless a blocking option is offered. Phone companies such as Bell Atlantic, which is phasing in Caller ID in the mid-Atlantic states but not offering blocking, say a blocking provision would defeat the purpose of the service.

California has passed legislation requiring blocking be offered with Caller ID, and Pennsylvania allows police and domestic violence agencies to block it.

Some telephone companies have said privacy concerns have delayed their plans to introduce the service.

Kohl sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which, according to congressional sources, will consider Caller I.D. as part of hearings on a number of privacy issues this year.