Most of us value our privacy and assume that it will be
respected. But in today’s world of data sharing, privacy
is something which you cannot take for granted. Just try
typing your name or phone number into an online
directory – you will be surprised how much information
about you is openly and easily available to anyone who
wants access.
Before the era of internet, the only thorough Phone
Directory was the White Pages. Things changed when the
internet spread rapidly through homes worldwide. The
White and Yellow Pages tried to keep their phone number
listings private but a court decision in the 90s said
that they did not have copyright for a phone number list
since there was no creative work involved. Thus, anyone
could copy the White or Yellow Pages (which was easy
once databases became digitized) and make their own
online phone directory. Even if you opt out of the White
Pages, your information still could show up in one of
these online phone directories.
When it comes to cell phone numbers, we get a bit more
privacy. Laws state that you cannot make a directory of
cell phone numbers which can be looked up by a person’s
name. The only exception is if people opt-in to the cell
phone directory. There are some online cell directories
which work with this opt-in policy, but (as expected)
they don’t have many names and there is a lot of
inaccurate information. The privacy rules go out the
window when it comes to reverse cell phone directory
searches though. If you already have a number, then that
number’s owner can’t expect any privacy.
The online phone directories, such as reverse cell
lookup services, get their information from a large
range of sources like credit agencies, polling lists,
and sales lists. If you have ever had to put your phone
number down on a signup form and didn’t carefully read
the privacy rules, then your number could have been sold
to a reverse phone directory online. Once one of these
cell directories has a hold of your number, just about
every other directory is also going to get the
information.
Unfortunately, there is very little you can do to get
yourself out of an online phone directory once you are
there. You can make individual requests to each of the
websites to remove your information – but this will take
a lot of time since there are so many different reverse
cell directories to go through (and new ones springing
up all the time). If you are lucky enough to not show up
in the phone directories online and want to keep it that
way, then be extremely cautious with giving out your
phone number. Always make sure to read the privacy
policy on websites that ask for your number and get
yourself added to the national Do Not Call list.
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