ABSTRACT
Regulatory commissions seldom include privacy considerations in making telecommunications policy or establishing rates. This chapter addresses the public's interest in privacy alongside the parallel public policy supporting universal service. Privacy is situational. Some invasions are serious, it not revolting. Others are irritating but not serious. And others we willingly endure in order to get something in return. To telephone executives contemplating a new service, privacy may be among the last elements to be considered in product development. The concept of universal service has been the lode star for telecommunications policy developed over nearly a century. While the scope of universal service is changing, the bedrock desirability of affordable phone service widely available to all of us is not. For a nation that prizes privacy, it is notable that the US Constitution does not mention it as a specific right. The law of telephone privacy can be characterized by intermittent bouts of thrust and parry between the courts and Congress.
