Yellow Pages can see withheld Caller ID

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ajobbins

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# 22492 29-May-2008 16:05

I called Yellow Pages Group today after first withholding my phone number from being displayed. I did this as I was calling from my business line about my personal account and didnt want the rep to get confused based on the number I was calling from, as has happened in the past (And resulted in my business number being changed to my residential number in the White and Yellow Pages).

Anyway, as soon as the rep answered the call she already had my business account details up - which means she could see my Caller ID. If YP was still Telecom owned I can see how this may have been seen as OK, seeing as Telecom do state that your number is still visible if calling emergency services or a Telecom Call Centre.

However, Yellow Pages was sold and Telecom no longer own the company. It concerns me greatly that their call centre can see my Caller ID. How many other places can?

cranz

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# 134198 29-May-2008 16:39

Strange. I do remember an ISP I worked for a couple of years back could also see withheld numbers. It would show "Withheld (09 xxxxxxx)" - no prompting of user to enter phone number either.

I always thought that was strange

PenultimateHop

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# 134200 29-May-2008 16:44

Lots and lots of places can. Anyone with an SS7 interconnect with the originating carrier will receive the ANI (call tracing purposes) and SHOULD withhold it when sent to the terminating equipment as CLI. But many don't - either because they're too lazy to configure it correctly, or it's handy.

I've had PRI and PR2 trunks from both TelstraClear and Telecom that would show withheld numbers, which was quite handy at times.

sbiddle

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# 134201 29-May-2008 16:47

Up until around the middle of last year iTalk didn't block CID's so you could see whoever was calling you.

nzbnw

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# 134205 29-May-2008 17:02

Before Telecom sold YPG, they updated their T's&C's to allow this information to be provided to YPG AFAIK.

Check your providers website for T's&C's?

nzbnw

ajobbins

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# 134214 29-May-2008 17:59

PenultimateHop: Lots and lots of places can. Anyone with an SS7 interconnect with the originating carrier will receive the ANI (call tracing purposes) and SHOULD withhold it when sent to the terminating equipment as CLI. But many don't - either because they're too lazy to configure it correctly, or it's handy.

I've had PRI and PR2 trunks from both TelstraClear and Telecom that would show withheld numbers, which was quite handy at times.

Quite handy, maybe, but what about privacy? I'm sure there would be alot of people with withheld numbers out there who wouldn't be too happy to know that their number is in fact visible to a large number of organisations because the Telco/Organisation does not or will not withhold the number to the terminating equiptment.

There are good, legitmate reasons why people do not want this information displayed.

ajobbins

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# 134215 29-May-2008 18:06

From the Telecom website:

"...
Things you should know:

Even if you use Number Withhold, your number will be displayed to 111 emergency services and our operators..."

freitasm

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# 134217 29-May-2008 18:16

The Yellow Pages business is not a Telecom operation anymore. They should follow the privacy request sent down the line.

ajobbins

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# 134221 29-May-2008 18:20

Perhaps the privacy commissioner will be interested.

PenultimateHop

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# 134227 29-May-2008 18:34

adamj: Quite handy, maybe, but what about privacy? I'm sure there would be alot of people with withheld numbers out there who wouldn't be too happy to know that their number is in fact visible to a large number of organisations because the Telco/Organisation does not or will not withhold the number to the terminating equiptment.

There are good, legitmate reasons why people do not want this information displayed.

Sure. I was mildly surprised about it when I first noticed it; but it was helpful for us occasionally due to fraud cases. It definitely isn't desirable (by the carrier or the customers) for it to happen, although there are occasional technical reasons that it happens.

If you search through old Telecom Wholesale Informer bulletins, there was one about IPNet being fixed to not show CLI information for withheld numbers - I think you got the first 4 digits (9876xxxx) after they did this.

To get back on topic, I'd suggest the reason the Yellow Pages operators can see your CLI information is that they are probably stlil seated in Telecom call centres, still using Telecom phone systems, Telecom backend systems, etc... as it slowly migrates over to separate business infrastructure.

I'd imagine that eventually they would not be able to see it - although presumably Telecom can turn the display off for those agent phones.

ajobbins

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# 134229 29-May-2008 18:40

PenultimateHop: I'd imagine that eventually they would not be able to see it - although presumably Telecom can turn the display off for those agent phones.

And should, immediately. As should every other organisation who is not Telecom or 111.

I remember back when I first moved to Wellington and got a Woosh line. Restricted numbers used to come through RESTRICTED and then the number. After I posted about it here, and made a call to them, they fixed it.

I also know from experience that the Ihug call centre used to be able to see them. I guess they had this information available because they were a Telco, but it should not be being presented to the operators. I do not know what the case is not that Ihug has been swallowed up and spat out as Vodafone.