[Cryptography] Creepy correlation noted

[John Levine]

In article <E1dVRn8-0007Xe-P9 at elasmtp-masked.atl.sa.earthlink.net> you write:
>So unless someone across the street is reporting my presence in real
>time, I'm pretty sure that my ISP is the culprit.

How would they even know what your phone number is?  Where is this
sekrit live sucker feed?  How do I sign up for it?  Why does no
marketer I have ever met know about it?

>Re "donut call list": I suspect the only reason for the existence of
>this list is to gather *known good numbers* for politicians themselves
>to call, as they have (surprise, surprise!) exempted themselves from
>"do not" part of the "do not call" list.

That's a swell conspiracy theory, but it's ridiculous.  There is huge
consumer support for DNC lists, and the Federal Trade Commission does
a lot of work chasing down violators, althouugh (obCrypto) with the
current nearly non-existent authentication of VoIP calls it's endless
whack-a-mole.  

Politicians have no trouble getting numbers from public voter records
and even from people who provide phone numbers when they send money.

>The politicians have also *timed out* the "donut call list", ...

Um, no.  The FTC says:

 How long does my phone number stay registered?

 Telephone numbers on the Registry don't expire. We only remove your
 number when it's disconnected and reassigned, unless you ask us to
 remove it.

(See https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0108-national-do-not-call-registry#registering)

R's,
John