Advantages and Disadvantages of Cell Phone Directory in Countries Where It’s Allowed by Law

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cell Phone Directory in Countries Where It's Allowed by Law

Have you ever heard of a cell phone directory? If not then you may be surprised by what a simple internet search of your phone number can reveal about you. Telephone directories are nothing new. Everyone but the youngest of children remembers using the big books of White Pages and Yellow Pages. Even though a personal name and street address for every phone number was published, it somehow did not seem personally invasive. Maybe it is just because that is the way that it always was. Or maybe because phone books were local by nature, and your information was only exposed to neighbors in your community. Who knows why, but for some reason publishing lists of peoples addresses by name never seemed like an invasion of privacy. Certainly not enough for most to pay the small fee for their phone number to be unlisted. Besides, it almost seemed like a benefit, so that someone could call you if they knew your name but didn't have your number.

Modern times are different, though. As companies have gotten creepier with the amount of information the require, and what they have chosen to do with it, the public has become more wary of how their information is obtained and how it is published. Phone directories that used to be neighborhood records, have been transferred to the Internet and gone global.

The result is someone who uses their real name on the Internet for a chat board or blog post, could have their phone number easily revealed and receive calls from unknown strangers from around the world. It may sound like paranoia, but instances of this have already occurred. An online forum called 4Chan has made news for pulling pranks on people that have been shown as socially irresponsible on the Internet. People who have felt their wrath have had pizzas delivered to their house non-stop, harassment over the phone, harassment of their work's phone lines, etc. Regardless of whether 4Chan's victims were guilty of worse crimes, the point should be made that the harassment could come from anyone, anywhere in the world, who decides to become belligerent towards you.

So where does that leave reverse phone directories? Well, if you say call to complain to a person, government, or business for whatever reason, you should expect to not be anonymous. They can take your phone number to any number of Internet sites do a reverse directory look up, and find your name and address for free. If you have a cell phone then they can only get your general location and wireless carrier name for free, but if they want to pay for a premium service then they can get your name and street address as well. From there they can research your job and relations from any profiles, blogs,  and resumes that you may have posted online, and you may be harassed in any number of ways.

Unfortunately there is not much that you can do to protect yourself. The cat is already out of the bag, so to speak. Online phone directories and reverse directories are here to stay. All that you can do is limit the amount of information that you give to companies and that you post online.