Japan ID's and now this...

[Matthew X]

We know where you live
By Nicole Manktelow
August 3 2002
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It's an initiative designed to assist convergence - that is, the many 
devices and channels of communication that are blending.
ENUM is a protocol that can be used to map phones, faxes or other devices 
from their particular telephone number to the Internet.
It could give all Australian households a new electronic point of contact. 
It could also forge the beginning of a combined communications system.
And, if adopted by various nations, it could pave the way for a massive 
international directory.
Just how ENUM will be implemented, who will run it and if participation 
will be mandatory are details to be determined, according to national 
numbers body the Australian Communications Authority (www.aca.gov.au).

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The ACA controls Australia's telephone country code +61 and will soon 
decide who should be responsible for running the country's ENUM initiative.
"It's about developing a single electronic address for people," says Paul 
White, the ACA's telecommunications licensing group executive manager.
"There are no time frames yet," says White, as the project is in its early 
stages, but some experts believe it may be a reality within just three years.
The ENUM protocol was devised by the Internet Engineering Task Force's 
(www.ietf.org) telephone number mapping working group. The group defined a 
domain name system (DNS) method for mapping a telephone number to a point 
of contact on the Internet.
Using this method, the ACA's phone number +61 3 9963 6800, for example, 
would be reversed and become the basis of the address: 
0.0.8.6.3.6.9.9.3.1.6.e614.arpa.
The last few segments, "1.6.e614.arpa", utilise the country code and 
indicate that the address/number is located in Australia.
Sending an email to such an address could "provide all the contact details 
of a person ... It might be a response that is as simple as a contact 
register", White says.
"Almost half the households in Australia have Internet access and most have 
a phone. That's two electronic contact points. Then there are mobiles," he 
adds.
With ENUM, "you would have a single electronic access point or address".
The concept of a single contact point does, however, conjure familiar fears 
for civil libertarians, particularly if the implementation of ENUM does not 
give users full control over their details.
"The effect of ENUM would be to establish a single unique contact number 
for each individual," says privacy expert Roger Clark.
"If it was successful, it would represent a unique personal identifier, 
with all the threats to privacy and freedoms that this entails," Clark says.
The ENUM protocol may concentrate on devices, but it is the people using 
these phones who will end up connected, eventually.
"It's a device identifier, but devices are personal. And there is more 
location information embedded in them all the time," Clark adds.
"It would be lovely if from the beginning the system would be under the 
user's control. But this is never how they are implemented."
The ACA will publish an ENUM discussion paper on its Web site by the end of 
the month. A discussion group will follow, as will trials of various 
business models.
The ACA will also "look at technical and consumer safeguards", White says, 
in particular the databases that are expected to handle the contract 
information for phone users.
nicole at auscape.net.au
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/02/1028157836588.html
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