Intelius Claims 240M in Wireless Phone Number DirectoryTricia Duryee reports in the Seattle Times that Intellius, a commercial data broker, is about to amass a database of 240 million wireless phone numbers: People who visit www.intelius.com can enter a person’s name to get a cellphone number, or do the reverse by entering a number to get the subscriber’s name. Each search costs $15.
Ed Petersen, Intelius co-founder and senior vice president of sales and marketing, said the company has 120 million listings but expects to increase that to 240 million in the next two weeks. If that is true, Intelius is claiming to have nearly every single subscriber’s digits in the U.S. While the carriers have proposed to create a wireless 411 database, and Congress has threatened to regulate it, commercial data brokers have been quietly amassing cell phone numbers. In addition to Intelius, Experian sells wireless numbers (PDF). These data-broker created databases will circumvent true opt-in protections being considered by Congress and the states. How have these companies obtained the numbers? Petersen declined to give much detail but said Intelius gets data from marketing companies and public records — all sources people have opted in to, he said.
Petersen said Intelius connects names to numbers by putting together billions of pieces of information. For example, one piece of information might link a name to an address; another source might tie that address to a phone number. While a portion of the data, such as addresses, may have come from public sources, it’s likely that the wireless numbers were purchased from other companies. For example, if a consumer gives a wireless number to a business, in most circumstances, that business is free to sell it to others. Petersen’s quote illustrates a tension present in many privacy debates, which I believe is definitional—”all sources people have opted in to…” In this context, what does opt in mean? An argument could be made that when a consumer provides a phone number to a company, the consumer welcomes some communication from that company. The telemarketing rules recognize such an act as an “established business relationship.” On the other hand, who would believe that giving a wireless number to a business would also be giving consent to all uses, including future resale by Intelius or other companies? |
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