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Caller ID is a new technology used by some businesses to always show the company’s main switch number regardless of whether or not an employee is calling from their cell phone, home phone, or a public phone. Many users of caller ID spoofing argue that it is a great tool for improving productivity and business communications. However, the way that some of these buinesses utilize caller ID spoofing may violate the law according to a bill introduced in the Senate and now in the House called “The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010.”

Caller ID spoofing allows a person or business to choose the 10 digit phone number that shows up when placing a phone call. “There are useful aspects of this technology” said Itellas Communications CEO Keith Harrington, “However, the useful aspects of caller ID are not nearly as newsworthy. Add to that PAris Hilton used caller ID spoofing to hack Lindsay Lohan’s voicemail box and voila! every other article is about the dangers, not the usefulness, of the tool.” Bill collectors, telemarketers, and private investigators are a few of the groups that use fake caller ID technology as part of their daily business. Your average person would screen or ignore a call from an unknown number” or “private” listing, however they would answer a call if the number displayed was one they knew.

The main clause of the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010 reads “It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any real time voice communications service, regardless of the technology or network utilized, to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, with the intent to defraud or deceive.” However, some companies that employ caller ID spoofing (Google Voice) could be construed as violating this new law as a result of the core function of the technology. Google argues it has a vested interest in displaying the primary number for all incoming and outgoing calls regardless of whether those calls were placed from a desktop phone, a personal smartphone, or a software-based VoIP client on the PC.The law is wording in such a way that it applies not only to traditional means of communication and VoIP networks, but to “any real time voice communications service, regardless of the technology or network utilized.”

While it seems that the debate on the legitimate uses of caller ID spoofing and the ability to fake caller ID will no doubt echo the halls of law school classrooms and corporate board rooms, it is unclear at thsi point which version of the “Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010″, if any, will ultimately pass and get a presidential signature. Good arguments can be made by both sides and all involved seem to agree on teh fact that “fraud” is already illegal so why bother creating a new law that specifies a particular medium to which fraud may be rampant…Directory..Theblogcatalog Copy & Paste Articles

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