PRIVACY Forum Digest     Friday, 19 February 1993     Volume 02 : Issue 06

         Moderated by Lauren Weinstein (lauren@cv.vortex.com)
                Vortex Technology, Topanga, CA, U.S.A.
	
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CONTENTS
	Numbers and Addresses (Brett Glass)


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VOLUME 02, ISSUE 06

   Quote for the day:

	"Be virtuous and you will be eccentric."

		-- A Curious Dream (1872) "Mental Photographs"
	   	   Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) 1835-1910

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*** Remember, if you don't submit material, there won't be material
*** to read!  It's interesting to see that, apparently, the readership
*** is *so* satisfied with all privacy matters that there is little
*** need for questions, comments, or discussions regarding such topics!
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					       -- MODERATOR

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Date:    Mon, 8 Feb 93 18:16:14 PST
From:    rogue@mica.berkeley.edu (Brett Glass)
Subject: Numbers and Addresses (Subject field supplied by MODERATOR)

Padgett Peterson writes:
 
> ...reverse phone books provide additional information, but all
> is based on the information provided by the telco.
 
[Some text omitted]
 
> Further, even where reverse directories are available, they are
> based on the information provided electronically (for a fee) by
> the telco. There are any number of ways to prevent dissemination
> of this.
 
> The two best known are touted as extra cost "features" by the Telco -
> unpublished and unlisted numbers. There is a third means that may be
> used at no cost however. Simply specify that only the name of the person
> having that number be listed (e.g. direct that no address or only the
> city be listed). There is nothing in the tarrifs that requires
> street addresses to be listed in the phone book and several compelling
> reasons why individual safety would dictate not - but few people ever take
> asvantage of this.
 
> The important thing to remember is that the subscriber does have  some
> control over *what* is listed, and this is what is reported to outside
> parties.
 
Mr. Peterson might be interested in knowing that getting an
unlisted phone number, or excluding one's address from the
telephone book, in no way impedes marketers armed with a phone
number who wish to obtain your name and address. Several
commercial "matching" services now exist which use data from
magazine subscriber lists, business customer databases, and other
pools of personal data -- many of which include phone numbers.
Another source, thanks to lax disclosure laws, is credit bureaus.
While credit bureaus are prevented by the Fair Credit Reporting
Act from disclosing credit information except under certain
circumstances, they're NOT prohibited from providing names and
addresses when given phone numbers (or vice versa).
 
Most matching firms claim a substantial hit rate on unlisted
numbers and numbers for which addresses are not printed in the
phone book.
 
<BG>
 
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End of PRIVACY Forum Digest 02.06
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