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Reverse telephone directory
A reverse telephone directory (also known as a blackpages directory or
reverse phone lookup) is a collection of telephone numbers and associated
customer details. However, unlike a standard telephone directory, where the
user uses customer's details (such as name and address) in order to retrieve
the telephone number of that person or business, a reverse telephone
directory allows users to search by a telephone service number in order to
retrieve the customer details for that service.
Reverse telephone directories are used by law enforcement and other
emergency services in order to determine the origin of any request for
assistance, however these systems include both publicly accessible (listed)
and private (unlisted) services. As such these directories are restricted to
internal use only.
Publicly accessible reverse telephone directories may be provided as part of
the standard directory services from the telecommunications carrier in some
countries. In other countries these directories are often created by phone
phreakers by collecting the information available via the publicly
accessible directories and then providing a search function which allows
users to search by the telephone service details.
Printed reverse phone directories have been produced by the telephone
companies (in the United States) for decades, and were distributed to the
phone companies, law enforcement, and public libraries. In the early 1990s,
businesses started offering reverse telephone lookups for fees, and by the
early 2000s advertising-based reverse directories were available online,
prompting occasional alarms about privacy concerns.
Australia
On 29 June 2001, a legal case Telstra Corporation Ltd v Desktop Marketing
Systems Pty Ltd [1] was heard in the Australian Federal Court. The case was
lodged following the release of a product called "Phonedisk" created by
Desktop Marketing Systems Pty Ltd. The investigation found that the content
of that product, which allowed the user to search by service number, was
almost identical in content to the publicly listed directories, even if some
of the content was listed in a different fashion. The court's findings gave
Telstra, the predominant carrier within Australia and the maintainer of the
publicly accessible White Pages (residential) and Yellow Pages (commercial)
directories, copyright over the content of these directories.
As a result, that product was removed from sale. Further, a web-based
reverse directory, called "Blackpages", created by 2600 Australia, also
terminated its service.
While operating illegally, there is currently a 'Greypages' service
operating and being hosted offshore. Unfortunately, the database in use is
from November 2005, due to no recent databases being available. Update: This
database has since had legal action against it from Telstra. Grey Pages
United States--cell phone lookups
As cellular phones become more popular, there has been debate about
releasing cell phone numbers into public 411 and reverse number directories.
(S. 1963, the "Wireless 411 Privacy Act" 9/2004). However, opposition lead
by leading consumer-protection organization Consumer's Union presented
several privacy concerns in their congressional testimony. Right now, cell
phone numbers are not available in any public 411 or reverse-number
directories. However, several information companies provide reverse cell
phone lookups that are obtained from utility resources, and are available
online.
UK
In the mainland UK reverse directory information is not publicly available.
An exception is the Channel Islands where it is provided in the printed
telephone directories.
Although the information is, of necessity, available to emergency services,
for other agencies it is treated as 'communication data' in the RIPA regime
and subject to the same controls as requests for lists of and content of
calls.
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