It was only a matter of time before some company found a way to amass a database of cellular phone numbers. Intelius claimed that achievement last week when it unveiled its online cellular phone directory search.
Never mind that the directory isn’t 100 percent accurate. When former Congressman and Seattle Seahawk Steve Largent, who now runs a cell phone lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., put his name into the Web site’s search engine, it gave him someone else’s name. That apparently was good enough for Bellevue-based Intelius, which refused Largent’s request for a refund of the $15 fee he paid.
Even though the search is available to the public and the numbers are legal to publish as long as the wireless provider itself doesn’t give them out it’s obvious where Intelius is aiming its service. It’s not the average citizen or even journalists. It’s marketing companies, which would like nothing more than to make pitches to you on your wireless phone.
When they do, it’ll cost you money in the form of the minutes you pay for each month. When telemarketers call your land line, they’re a nuisance. For cellular users, who pay for each call they make or receive, it’s as much an issue of currency as courtesy. Few consumers will be happy about paying to hear an unsolicited sales pitch on their cell.
The service’s initial problems with accuracy shouldn’t be cause for complacency. Lawmakers must act to protect consumers from this invasive idea.
In the meantime, state Attorney General Rob McKenna reminds consumers that they can and should register their cell numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry. McKenna adds that even though registration is supposed to stay in force for five years, it’s a good idea to re-register every year so telemarketers can’t use your number if they get it from a business you’ve shared it with recently.
Federal legislation regulating the use of cell phone directories is needed, but if it doesn’t come quickly, state lawmakers should act. Our state has a strong history of consumer protection, and McKenna said his office is researching ways to deal with this emerging problem that will pass constitutional muster.
The access companies have to citizens’ private information, including their cell numbers, must be controlled now, before data collection companies and marketers get wise to how they can exploit it at the literal expense of consumers.
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