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An Exploration of Online Cell Phone Lookup Services, Part 3My Hopes Are DashedBy now, I was feeling much better about my privacy. After all, if these guys were any indication, only Intelius seemed to pose a major threat to my identity. The others all seemed to be variations of the Three Stooges. But my optimism was premature. The next identity scraper was ReversePhoneLookup.org. After I entered my cell phone number, they correctly identified the town I lived in and my cell phone carrier, even confirming (unlike Spokeo) that my phone was, indeed, a cell phone. They also wanted to sell me access to my private information. I could spend $1 for a 5 day trial membership, and regular membership was $19.95 per month. I took some solace from the fact that they showed where they thought I lived in the town on Google maps, but the street they showed was about eight miles away from where I live. In return for the membership fee, they promised access to the following "possible results": Name, Age, Email, Primary Address, Home Ownership, Marital Status, Date of Birth, List of Relatives, Address History, Social Web Search, Criminal Records Check, Arrests and Warrants. Gee, I wonder if the police use Reverse Phone Lookup? This time, I decided to take a closer look at this outfit's terms of service. The company is apparently called Wired Rhino, Inc. from an indeterminate location, because they listed no contact information. They said that their terms were legally binding on me and that they could change the terms at any time. Nice deal for them, but I pity anyone who actually signs up and pays for their service. Still, even though I had no intention of signing up, I didn't feel comfortable where my own privacy was concerned. This company had apparently gotten some of my info right, and they were apparently willing to sell it cheap. At least they weren't promising to protect my identity at the same time they were helping others to gain access to it, like Intelius did. My little excursion into the realm of online cell phone lookup services left me feeling a mixture of concern and relief. On the one hand, clearly the majority of players in this market are con artists who can't tell a land line from a cell phone. On the other hand, all of them are willing to tell anyone willing to drop some bucks their way whatever they've got on file about me. And the worst of the bunch, Intelius, will gladly help protect my identity that they are so happy to give out to others for a nice, tidy monthly fee. In fact, all of them were willing to give away this "service" for a fee, some whoring for larger amounts of money, while others were giving away their favors for a song. And the biggest gorilla of the lot was willing to screw you while it serviced you. Nice. If you're looking for my advice, it would be to stay as far away from all of these "services" as you can possible get. Last Update: 7/16/2011 |