I Have Your Cell Phone Number
Jan 31st 2008Nik AgarwalBusiness/Finance
One of the reasons why I enjoy my cell phone is the fact that I’m never bothered by irritating telemarketers hawking their company’s products and/or services. My cell phone is literally my lifeline since it is the only way I can communicate with anyone far away through voice. And for this “luxury,” I end up paying close to $50 a month including an SMS package and a web browsing package. On average, I’ve discovered that I end up talking close to 600 minutes during peak times and almost the same amount on nights and weekends. Luckily, I never have to pay for a junk call. However, I’m afraid that may change quite soon.
Find Your Cell Phone Number Now!
Intelius, a company seeking an IPO, is selling your cell phone number for a whopping $14.95. In fact, for that price, you can look up just about anybody’s phone number. Since Intelius is a very sleazy nice company - insert sarcastic remark - , they don’t charge if no results are found. What makes the entire fiasco interesting is that your number is probably already in the database if you used your cell phone for ordering pizza. Here’s a short excerpt from the MSNBC article:
Ed Petersen, the company’s executive vice president, said it was surprisingly easy for Intelius to compile its directory. The company considers a consumer to have opted in to the service if he or she has ever given the number to a government agency or a business.
“Geez, [there are] tons of ways — everything from going out to a Web site and buying a ring tone for your phone to putting your phone number down at anything [like] ordering a pizza,” Petersen told NBC affiliate KING of Seattle. “There are literally dozens and dozens of ways that a user or a consumer could opt in to a database.”
Verizon is fighting
I’m glad that a company such as Verizon has taken notice of this company has proclaimed that it will defend the privacy of its customers’ numbers through litigation if need be. The article does not mention whether AT&T or Sprint will join forces with Verizon, but I imagine that neither company will let some company simply release their subscribers’ phone numbers without crying foul. The key thing to remember is that if you do business with a company, they are allowed to contact you, even if your number is on the DO-NOT-CALL list. However, if you do not do business with Intelius or its customers, then the theory is that they will not be allowed to contact you if you are on the DO-NOT-CALL list. Can anyone verify that for me?
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