Telephone solicitors have a tough time reaching Althea Harper.

        And that's just the way she likes it.

        Joining a growing number of consumers tired of the intrusions on their privacy, the Florence woman put a block on her phone. It requires unidentified callers to enter their numbers so that she can seem them before her phone will ring.

PROTECT YOURSELF

• The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 stipulates that people have the right to ask telemarketers to be placed on “Do not call” lists. The telemarketing company can be fined up to $500 per call, up to $1,500, for each call after the initial request.     • Keep a log of unwanted calls. You may be able to file suit in a small claims court against the company.     • Sign up with the Direct Marketing Association, which published lists of consumers who do not want to receive solicitation calls. This won't eliminate unwanted calls but should decrease the number. Your name can be added to DMA's lists by sending your name, complete telephone number and address to: Telephone Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association. P.O. Box 9014, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9014.     • Be careful to whom you give personal information. When you subscribe to a magazine, join a music club or correspond with a professional group, enclose a note that says, “Do not sell, rent or exchange my name, address or phone number.”    Sources: www.fcc.gov/cib/consumerfacts/Nofaxes.html and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

        Most of the time, telemarketers don't bother.

        “I'm ashamed to say (I have the phone block) because I used to work in telemarketing,” says Ms. Harper, 59. But “they always seem to call at the wrong time. And it's annoying.”

        At a time when people are more wired than ever, they're also working to take control of how and when they communicate. People enjoy the freedom of easy communication, but they place a premium on the value of privacy.

        Today, less than two years after Cincinnati Bell launched a privacy protection feature such as the one Ms. Harper uses, nearly one in four households — or about 157,000 homes in Greater Cincinnati — have the service.

        And two weeks ago, the company introduced another feature to respond to consumer requests for more privacy control. Quiet Time allows people to block incoming calls during a certain period, such as during dinner or when the baby is asleep. Important callers programmed into the system can ring through. Already, there are 3,000 subscribers.

        Customers want more control of their communications, says Tressie Long, spokeswoman for Cincinnati Bell.

        “People are communicating in a lot more diverse ways than they have in the past, and they're looking for easy and convenient ways to manage who's communicating with them,” she says.

        A USA Weekend poll last summer found more than half of American adults are extremely concerned about their ability to keep personal information private, and 75 percent considered telemarketing calls an invasion of privacy.

        “We're in the age of information abundance and information overload, and people desperately want any tool that will help them control incoming communications,” says Beth Givens, director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, Calif. ""Telemarketing is just more noise, and the vast majority of people do not appreciate unsolicited telemarketing calls.”

        It started with Caller ID, introduced to Cincinnati Bell customers in Ohio in 1992. But the phone still rings, even if it's an unwanted telemarketing call. And not all numbers appear on the screen.

        The advanced privacy features say, “The person you are calling does not accept calls marked private. Please enter your telephone number.” Telemarketers often use an automatic dialing system. The computers don't recognize the voice prompt and eventually hang up when the phone doesn't ring.

        An Arizona company offers another alternative: a phone butler. This is for people, often senior citizens, who don't want to be rude to the telemarketer but also don't want to be pressured to purchase an unwanted item or get caught in a scam.

        The butler hooks to a phone line and can be triggered by pressing the star button. A polite, English voice comes on the line and tells the caller that the person is not interested in the service and to add the number to a "Do not call' list. The butler says, Good day, and hangs up the phone. It's $49.95 and sold by Senior Benefit Association (800-934-5414).

        Linda Voegele of Anderson Township has a privacy feature on her phone, but if a solicitor slips through, she uses another method of dealing with telemarketers. Mrs. Voegele puts the phone cross-ways over the hook and lets the person keep talking while she goes back to her work.

        “I pay for my phone,” she says. “I don't appreciate anybody encroaching onto what I pay for.”

        Invariably Monica Eichenlaub would be up to her elbows in suds and wet dogs when the phone would ring. She estimates telemarketers called her home business, Country Boarding and Kennel, 10-15 times a day.

        “A lot of times, I'm bathing dogs or walking them, and I'd run to get the phone, only for it to be a telemarketer,” says Mrs. Eichenlaub of Waynesville. “The animals have to come first. Not the telemarketers.”

        The $10 extra a month she pays Ameritech for the privacy manager service is worth it. It saves a lot of time and trouble, she says.

        Customers occasionally complain, Mrs. Eichenlaub says, but they understand once she explains the reason for the service.

        Telemarketers “take me away from my work. They don't give up. They're relentless,” she says. “We're going to put (privacy manager) on our home phone next.”

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