January 04, 2005 | Ringing in the New Laws

I started off the New Year with as story for Wired News about three new California laws.

Californians entered the new year with the assurance their cell phone numbers cannot be automatically added to the 411 database, the ability to sue spammers and the comfort of knowing rental car companies cannot track their travels, thanks to a spate of privacy-enhancing laws that went into effect Jan. 1.

Those outside California's borders may benefit as well.

...

State legislators prohibited cell phone providers from adding a customer's wireless numbers to a centralized directory unless the company has written permission, in part to protect people from paying for calls to their cell phones they do not want.

Land-line phone companies, however, often charge individuals who want an unlisted number.

Currently, no cell phone numbers are included in phone directories, but six of the seven largest wireless providers are working with Qsent to allow customers to also get cell phone numbers when they call traditional directory-assistance numbers.

It's yet another one of those stories where I get to learn more than I can print.

The folks developing the wireless directory at Qsent seem to be on the right track and seem less resistant to laws prohibiting the automatic inclusion of cell phone numbers in a centralized directory than the cell phone industry was (.pdf) when Congress considered a similar measure last year.

Their system, which they hope to roll out this year, also shields numbers from marketers and does not spread the numbers to all directory assistance providers. It simply lets those providers query into their own database.

I still don't know if I'd want my number listed. I think I might be partial to letting someone find my number and send me a text message or possibly, to be connected to my number, without it being revealed to the caller.

But I think lots of folks will sign up --- if not this year, within the next five.

Posted by Ryan Singel at January 4, 2005 11:52 AM

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