Text 9156, 50 rader
Skriven 2010-07-11 13:46:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555.1)
   Kommentar till text 9153 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Cellphone woes
======================
Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt on Sunday July 11 2010 at 10:49:

 RB> But as for cellphone number books, like normal phone books, I think
 RB> the chance is pretty slim that they will come any time soon

Here in The Netherlands there are cell phone numbers in the phone book. Mine
is.

 RB> You can tie a land line to a name and address, but how do you want to
 RB> do that with an email address, or a cellphone number that has no area
 RB> code?

Simply list it with the name and address of the owner.

There are several reasons why not many cell phones in the book:

1) It requires positive action from the owner. Even for landlines it is not
automatic any more, but of course the provider already has your address. So you
just need to click the button for "I want to be listed in the phone book".
For a cell phone you must submit a form specifying the details.

2) There is a tendency for people to shift to unlisted numbers. That goes for
landlines as well. Unlisted numbers were the exception 20 years ago, but not
any more.

We noted the erosion of our privacy, but that is towards Big Brother. Privacy
from citizen to citizen has been seriously tightened up. Sometimes into the
ridiculous. Publishing personal data requires the explicit permission of the
subject. Radio Amateur Societies used to publish so called "call books". List
of radio amateur call signs with the names and addresses. The have stopped
doing that because the response to request for permission to publish is too
low. Such a list is useless if only 30% of the amateurs is listed.

The laws on data bases are very strict. One may not store more than what is
needed for the purpose stated and the data may not be used for other purposes
without the EXPLICIT permission of the subject. I suspect that if someone makes
an issue out of it, even publishing my nodelist segment would be a problem. I
could argue that publishing the nodelist is essential for the operation of the
network, but then it could be argued that I store and publish more than
required. Of course the telephone number and or IP number/host name is
essential, but the place of residence, system name and sysop name are not...

It is a grey area but I suspect, if a sysop insists on having his real name and
place of residence removed from the publicly published nodelist, I may have a
legal problem when I refuse.

Cheers, Michiel

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