Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: A big story, I think: "Single-Number Plan Raises Privacy Fears"
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 18:14:13 -0400
This is a real concern that will haunt us if we ignore it now.. djf
From: bdolan () usit net
To: "David Farber" <farber () linc cis upenn edu>
As I'm sure you know, the "Telcordia" referenced below used to be Bellcore.
bd
Single-Number Plan Raises Privacy
Fears
Technology: System would link
telephones, faxes and Web addresses
while creating giant databases.
By JUBE SHIVER Jr.,
Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- A
controversial technology
under development by the
communications industry
that links Internet
addresses with phone
numbers has quietly
picked up key government
support as concern
mounts among critics
that the technology will
broadly undermine
privacy.
The technology, known as
e-number, or ENUM, would
link phone numbers to
codes that computer
servers use to route
traffic on the Web.
Proponents say the
technology would improve
communication for
consumers and marketers
alike.
The industry envisions a
sophisticated electronic
address book that would
be able to direct
messages to virtually
any fax machine,
computer or telephone,
using a new 11-digit
e-number. As a result, a
fax could be sent to
someone who lacked a fax
machine but had an
e-mail address.
Likewise, cell phone
users would only have to key in
11-digits to send e-mail, not a
cumbersome alphanumeric address.
But privacy advocates fear the
system could undermine online
privacy and erode the security of
the public phone system as well.
They worry that the system would
destroy a pillar of Internet
privacy: the assumption by users
that they enjoy anonymity in
cyberspace.
The government's endorsement of the
technology, disclosed in interviews
and outlined in an Aug. 21 letter
distributed to an industry group, is
seen as critical in pushing it
forward.
"The United States does see merit in
pursing discussions regarding
implementation of a coordinated,
global [system] . . . for ENUM,"
Julian E. Minard, a State Department
advisor to the International
Telecommunication Advisory
Committee, wrote to representatives
of AT&T and other companies. But
Minard cautioned in the letter that
aspects of the technology advocated
by industry "go beyond what is
prudent or necessary."
ENUM is likely to be voluntary,
requiring users to sign up for the
service. But privacy experts say it
will not be worth the time and
investment the industry is making in
the technology unless it is widely
used. So they expect ENUM will be
aggressively promoted.
"We believe that ENUM raises serious
questions about privacy and security
that need to be addressed before
it's widely deployed," said Alan
Davidson, associate director of the
Center for Democracy and Technology,
a privacy watchdog group based in
Washington. "They are promoting this
as a system that is going to make it
really easy for people to find you
in all kinds of ways. Well, we want
to make sure that consumers can opt
out if they don't want to be found."
Today, vigilant Web surfers can
maintain a high degree of anonymity
because e-mail and other Web
addresses contain little personal
information. What's more, Web
addresses under aliases can easily
be created to cloak the identity of
the sender. As a result, marketers
have been forced to spend millions
of dollars to get Web surfers to
voluntarily give up personal
information.
By contrast, a phone number has a
wealth of personal information
associated with it, including a
street address, billing records and
dialing data. Marrying such
information to Web addresses would
represent a leap in private data
warehousing in cyberspace and
dramatically increase the risk of
privacy invasions, experts say.
"Someone could write a program to
query the ENUM database and obtain
every line of your contact
information and send spam to every
communications device you own," said
Chris Hoofnagle, legislative
director of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center in Washington.
Hoofnagle added that industry claims
that consumers would be able to opt
out of the system, or otherwise
protect their private information,
are hollow. "There could be coercion
down the road [by marketers] to push
consumers to use ENUM to store their
contact information. Absent
legislation, there is likely to be
abuse."
Since the Federal Communications
Commission regulates the nation's
telephone industry and the Commerce
Department administers key contracts
that allow private firms such as
Mountain View, Calif.-based Verisign
Inc. to register Internet domain
names, the government is likely to
play a powerful role in the outcome
of ENUM.
Its backing of further ENUM
development is the most significant
support yet for the technology. It
comes as a newly created industry
group, called the ENUM-Forum, agreed
last week to an ambitious schedule
to conclude work on ENUM by next
May.
"This is a big milestone," Gary W.
Richenaker, of Telcordia
Technologies Inc., said of the
group's first meeting last Monday.
Richenaker, who chaired the
gathering, said that officials of
the State Department, Federal Trade
Commission and Commerce Department
attended.
ENUM would work by combining two
massive electronic databases: North
American telephone numbers now
administered by a Washington company
called NeuStar Inc. and the main
database that routes Internet
messages, which is largely
controlled by Verisign.
An ENUM address reverses a standard
phone number and appends "e164.arpa"
to it. For example, the toll-free
directory assistance number would be
converted to
2.1.2.1.5.5.5.0.0.8.1.e164.arpa.
ENUM would recognize both the
e164.arpa address and the phone
number as belonging to directory
assistance.
With some software tweaks to the
current Internet system, computers
could be made to route messages to
such 11-digit ENUM addresses in much
the same way they now use up to
12-digits to send e-mail and display
Web pages.
Although industry engineers recently
completed technical specifications
for ENUM, AT&T, Cisco Systems Inc.,
SBC Communications Inc. and more
than 20 members of the ENUM-Forum
agreed last week to work out
additional critical details of the
system.
ENUM-Forum players also include AOL
Time Warner Inc., British
Telecommunications plc and
NetNumber.com Inc.--a Web start-up
that has been operating a private,
volunteer ENUM system for nearly a
year.
The companies will tackle
operational and security issues,
such as who would be authorized to
make service changes. Phones are
ordinarily associated with street
addresses, not individuals, so
businesses and households with more
than one person or phone would need
to determine who has control over
the ENUM associated with the phones.
The State Department's Minard said
his Aug. 21 letter reflected the
input of several government agencies
but termed the document a "draft"
that could change as industry
details about ENUM evolve.
Minard declined to elaborate on the
misgivings expressed about ENUM in
the letter. Other sources say ENUM
is most strongly supported by the
Commerce Department, while the FCC
and State Department remain wary of
the potential political fallout from
embracing the technology.
The industry, too, is divided over
how much the government should be
involved. The heavily regulated
telephone industry supports a
broader government role than do
Internet companies such as Verisign
and AOL Time Warner.
Stacy M. Cheney, an attorney for the
Commerce Department, said the
government has not decided whether
to play any regulatory role. But he
said officials support "continuing
discussions" on ENUM and would send
representatives to a Sept. 12
meeting of an International
Telecommunication Union panel to
discuss the technology.
Industry officials liken ENUM's
potential effect to the introduction
of touch-tone dialing in 1963. That
advance paved the way for a host of
modern phone features, including the
ability to bank by phone and
navigate voicemail menus.
ENUM "could be a huge boon to
Internet telephony and basic
communications convergence," said
Aristotle Balogh, vice president of
technology at Verisign.
ENUM, however, may never be embraced
by businesses or consumers because
of the privacy concerns. The
technology will also require support
from Internet service providers,
software developers, phone carriers
and others.
Still, ENUM is expected to gain
momentum with the government's
support. It could also get a big
boost from efforts by Microsoft
Corp. and AOL Time Warner to make
new versions of their software
support ENUM technology.
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- IP: A big story, I think: "Single-Number Plan Raises Privacy Fears" David Farber (Sep 02)