Wireless Directory Program Faces Privacy Concerns

Wireless Directory plans are under scrutiny by Capitol Hill lawmakers due to privacy concerns. Carrier efforts to create wireless white pages may face legislation aimed at protecting consumers' privacy. Introduced in the United States House of Representatives and the Senate, the Wireless 411 Consumer Privacy Act would require existing consumers to 'opt in' and new ones to 'opt out.' It also says consumers cannot be charged a fee in order to keep their number private. Landline operators charge a fee for the unlisted service, generating $50 million in revenue per year. Analysts expect the wireless directory assistance business to generate $3 billion per year. Carriers are working under the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) umbrella to nail down details of such a service and address privacy concerns. There is no need for regulation with consumer protections already in place that ban telemarketing to wireless phones and Do-Not-Call options, CTIA said. Carriers will move foward on their own schedules, but a directory is expected some time this year. (Source: New York Times)

The debate about this white pages issues is somewhat worrying and points to a misunderstanding of the social intricacies of cellular phones by wireless carriers. Again this hinges on the distinction between a place and a person and the ability to call a place vs. calling a person. A cell phone number is associated with a specific person almost the same way as their drivers license and their haircut are associated with them. Its is a really personal "feature" if you will. By making this number available to anyone who cares to access the white pages is like hanging out your laundry to dry and inviting everyone to come look at them knickers. While a landline designated a place, the cell phone number designates a person and the person may want to be in charge of who gets to obtain the other end of their electronic leash.

CTIA claims that, since there are already safeguards in place that do not allow telemarketers to call cellular phones, individual privacy is considered and nothing more needs to be done. It is as if they refuse to acknowledge just how different from a regular phone a cell phone can be. The problem here is control over dissemination of personal information, that concerns something extremely personal, sometihng that is so directly tied to an individual. Making cellular phone numbers available through a white pages system would essentially wrench that control away from the owner.

Maybe CTIA though, is just pretending that they do not understand these intricacies. They do, and what they want, is not the white pages system, but the revenue from those that desire their phone number to be private. They openly acknowledge that they expect to make 6 times the amount landline companies make by charging a fee for unlisting a number. This indicates that they realize how many more people would be willing to buy their privacy and control over the other end of the leash this way.