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My communications connection
According to the BBC, a mobile phone directory enquiry service launches today. If you’ve ever had a marketing call to your mobile, your number is probably on this database. It’s very difficult to remember to ask every company that you give your mobile number not to sell it to other people.
The company that’s thought up this cunning plan to make money is Connectivity. The report says that you can remove yourself from Connectivity’s service by visiting the website, but as I write this, the site says:
“The 118 800 service for mobile phone connections is currently unavailable – from this website and by phone – whilst we undertake major developments to our ‘Beta Service’ to improve the experience for our customers”
So what now? Email contact@118800.co.uk or can someone go doorstep them at Merlin House, Brunel Road, Theale, Berks?
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5 comments so far
1 MJ Ray // Jul 13, 2009 at 8:54 am
Some more discussion at http://steve-dale.net/2009/07/11/all-uk-mobile-numbers-accessible-from-next-week/
2 Joe // Jul 14, 2009 at 10:53 am
Hello, Joe from 118800.co.uk here.
The website has been taken down for some essential maintenance work to be carried out, in order for us to improve the service we offer our customers. Any requests to opt out of the service before the site was taken down will still be carried out so there is no need to opt out again.
Just to reassure you that we’ll never actually give out anyone’s personal details. When you search on 118800.co.uk, we’ll send an SMS message to the person you’re looking for, giving them your contact details and it is then up to them if they wish to call them back or not.
We are genuinely interested in getting peoples feedback so that we can shape the service to make sure people are comfortable with it and for the service to be as useful and reliable as possible.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us on contact@118800.co.uk
Thanks,
Joe
118800.co.uk
3 MJ Ray // Jul 14, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Hello, Joe from 118800 – so, rather than being privacy infringement, it’s invite-spam? That’s slightly better but still seems anti-social to me. Why not make the service opt-in?
4 MJ Ray // Jul 15, 2009 at 9:23 am
It seems el Reg is also watching this one – see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/13/118800_failure_encore/
5 Virgilio Anderson // Jul 15, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Joe from 118 800:
Your own CEO admitted on the BBC’s Working Lunch 14/7 that this data was made live on the Internet without proper testing. How can the public feel assured that proper security measures have been taken to prevent any hacking into your servers, which contain thousands of confidential records from people who don’t want to be on your database?
Virgilio Anderson