(Opt out links at the bottom)
Update:
Connectivity, the company that owns 118800 has ceased the UK Mobile Phone Directory indefinitely according to The Register. The company denies that the site has been taken down as a consequence of a deluge of request by users to go ex-directory.
Original Post:
WTF!?!?
A new mobile phone number directory is set to launch here in the UK. It will be set-up by Directory Business 118800 using ‘publicly available’ data. Although the numbers are not free to anyone you only have to pay £1 to get to person you are looking for.
The Queen please. Buckingham Palace. London
Apparently all this is cool with the ICO (Information Commissioners Office).
This is how the service works; a number seeker calls 118800 and asks the operator to look for yourname and location. If 118800 have you on their database they then call you while holding the other person on the line, and if you are happy to be connected (yeah right), they connect you.
Want to buy double glazing?
At no point are your details shared with the seeker.
I read that they get numbers from 3 main sources:
- Market research companies who cold call and ask folk if they don’t mind their numbers being used for ‘commercial purposes’
- From online businesses who ‘trick’ users by doing the check-uncheck opt-in at the foot of sign-up forms
- dirty brokers who buy and sell peoples numbers
Want to Opt Out? – Yes Please!
118800 say it should be easy to unsubscribe and to do so you need to text the letter ‘E’ to 118800 from the number you wish to remain ex-directory.
Not sure I trust that.
Or you can visit their site to unsubscribe, though at the moment their site is down for ‘essential maintenance’.
Hmmm.
Update:
Connectivity, the company that owns 118800 has ceased the UK Mobile Phone Directory indefinitely according to The Register. The company denies that the site has been taken down as a consequence of a deluge of request by users to go ex-directory.
0 Responses to “UK Mobile Phone Directroy to Launch”