New UK mobile phone directory…

Note: See the update, July 23, at the end.

Oh, this is just great! One of the main advantages of mobile phones is their privacy – only people you want to have it get the number. Now, the assholes at 118 800 have launched a mobile phone directory. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/8091621.stm . This is a massive invasion of privacy, to which the government has given its blessing. Anyone surprised?

This is how it works (from the BBC website above – it doesn’t make total sense, especially the first part):-

If the company has it, contact details will be sent in a text message to them.

By phone, you call 118 800, and again they will check whether they have the person’s details on their database. If they do, they will call them up while you are still on the line and ask them whether they are prepared to have your call put through to them.

In neither case is the mobile phone number given over to the person making the request.

Both services cost £1.

OK, you won’t actually be plagued by cold callers and assorted lunatics, but you’ll still be pestered by numpties from 118 800, which is hardly an improvement. However, it does suggest that anyone with an unregistered PAYG mobe should be OK. I have a PAYG mobe, which I haven’t registered – the orphan mobe number isn’t in anyway associated with me, so how much value would that be? I never do register my PAYG mobes, by the way, for just this reason; it was bound to happen sooner or later.

You can unsubscribe by going to the website, http://www.118800.co.uk/removeme/remove-me.html but the buggerdly thing is down for “maintenance” – so nothing at all to do with all the irate people wanting to contact them, then!

Update, July 19 – just noticed there’s a new page on that link, but you still can’t contact these buggers to get your number removed from their directory. And despite their weasel words, I feel no better about this (my comments in bold):-

* We never ever give out any mobile numbers. We connect people who want or need to talk on the move using a system painstakingly designed to protect privacy.

I don’t care. The fact that they are willing to pester me to see if I want to talk to some prick I’ve never heard of is still an invasion of privacy. A dangerous one, too – especially when someone might be slamming down a busy motorway and the last thing they need is the mobe in their pocket going off. The fact is, with mobile phones, that everyone who needs a number will have been given it, so there is neither point nor justification for this service.

* We never ever sell or give mobile numbers to sales organisations, charities or anyone else.

Bullshit. How the hell do they know who’s on the other end of the phone line when they get an enquiry? And databases, as we all know only too well, can be hacked. The fact that all this information exists, gathered together in one place, is a risk.

* We don’t have children listed in our directory (though if you’ve given your phone to a child, you may want to make it ex-directory in your name just in case)

More bullshit. They have a number and a name, that’s all. They can’t possibly know how old the person is who belongs to that name.

They also say:-

Ex-directory requests

All ex-directory requests made by people in our directory to date are being processed. There will be no need to resend these requests. And we will take further ex-directory requests when the service resumes. We will not be taking ex-directory requests by phone or text whilst the service is unavailable.

Yeah, right. But just when the hell is that going to be? And how many people will have forgotten about this by the time they are back online? Is that what they’re hoping for?

Of course, anyone who’s even slightly cynical might think that the government has okayed this so that all the data is gathered together by someone else, and they can just ask for a copy as payback for their permission – instead of having to go cap in hand to each company individually, with all the uproar that would cause. (Joe, in Comments, didn’t deny this).

Anyway, keep plugging away at them, and if you want to express your displeasure, try this contact@118800.co.uk

I’ve emailed them asking just how the hell we’re supposed to unsubscribe when their website is down. I’ll let you know what, if anything, they say. Which, so far (July 19), is bugger all.

Anyway, at least mobes have caller display, so you have the option of giving the intrusive cold callers an earful, or just cutting them off.

Note:- In the Comments you will see one from Joe at 118 800. Take a look – doesn’t fill me with confidence…

Update, July 23: The following email has just been received from 118 800:-

Thank you for your email requesting that we delete your details from our directory.

We’d like to suggest we make you ex-directory rather than deleting all your details. This means that you will not re-appear in our directory in future when we refresh our data. And neither our call centre, nor our website, confirms ex-directory listings to enquirers.

However if you do really want us to delete all of your information then we will of course do so. But we must advise you that we cannot then guarantee you will remain out of our directory as we will hold no reference for you to honour such a guarantee.

Whichever solution you prefer, we need you to provide your full name, home address and mobile telephone number. Simply email us back at contact@118800.co.uk with these details confirming whether you want to be ex-directory or have your details deleted. Please state either “Ex-directory” or “Delete” in your email subject line.

I replied to them:-

Thank you.

Could you, please, answer a question for me? I, like many other people, have an unregistered PAYG mobile – I top up my credit using the supplied swipe card, which is also anonymous. I have a theory that such mobiles cannot feature in your database as there is no way of associating the number with a person. Am I right? Thank you.

Regards,

Ron Graves.

Even without their confirmation, I don’t see how unregistered PAYG mobes could be included in the database – not without the networks breaching the terms of the Data Protection Act and revealing to whom they sold the phones (if, indeed, they have that information). Even then, there is no guarantee that the buyer is the user.

I’m 99.9% sure that only mobes on accounts, or PAYG mobes that have been registered with a network, for example, if you register a credit or debit card to top it up (or if you succumb to network blandishments to register as the user), can be entered in the 118 800 database, as they’re the only phones where the number is associated with a person.

My unregistered phone, then should be fine – unless I email them asking to be made ex-directory. Then they will have  my full details, and my previously anonymous phone number will be associated with a person – me. All things considered, I’m disinclined to do that.

There is one thing that nobody, not even 118 800, has explained, though – who the hell is likely to legitimately want the mobile number of anybody? As I said at the outset, anyone I want to have my mobe number already has it. That’s it. I don’t want anyone else to have it and, if I ever do, I’ll give it to them. I’m willing to suggest that this is the same for virtually everybody. So what, then, is the point of the 118 800 directory? I sure as hell don’t want to be bothered by 118 800 operators asking me if I’ll take a call from someone I’d rather avoid. That is – still – an invasion of privacy.