Cells won’t get crank calls

Contrary to recent reports, cell phone providers will not distribute customer phone numbers to telemarketers or outside affiliates for their personal use.
Dawn Benton, Cingular’s regional public relations director for southeast media contacts said the rumor had ultimately become an “urban legend,” that circulates nearly every six months.
“Its only rumors,” Benton said. “Disclosure of any personal information by Cingular to any outside affiliate is a violation of your privacy rights and we could face a lofty fine for any such act. Our goal is to abide by the privacy principles that the Federal Communications Commissions has set.”
According to its Web site, Cingular confirms they do not sell personal information to unaffiliated third parties without customer consent, but does share personal information with third parties for services on Cingular’s behalf, for example to print billing statements. If the subscriber chooses to take advantage of services offered by other companies or purchase items using their mobile internet services, they will be disclosing personal information and making themselves available to outside telemarketers.
Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile also have similar privacy principles consistent with that of the FCC.
“The best advice for customers who may get telemarketing calls is to call their cell phone company immediately and verify they have passwords in place to shield their information,” said Matthew Sullivan, Sprint Nextel’s media contact.
Sullivan said subscribers might want to avoid the obvious schemes telemarketers use like trying to secure information pertaining to birthdays and social security numbers.
Neither Sprint Nextel nor T-Mobile discloses information without customer consent, but does share information for transaction processing and for certain business transfers.
Sprint Nextel uses their customer’s personal information to inform you about new products and services.
“Nextel has been doing a good job in protecting the privacy of their customers,” said Allaina Ferguson, a junior mass communications major from Port Allen and Nextel subscriber.
“But, if the rumors did turn into truth, I would be upset and I would ask to be placed on the do not call list to eliminate the calls.”
To further maintain and ensure the privacy of its customers, Sprint Nextel announced on Jan. 30 that it has filed a lawsuit against All Star Investigations Inc., a company believed to own and/or operate Web sites that fraudulently obtain and sell wireless customers call detail records through flagrant misrepresentation and deceitful practices.
This latest legal effort aimed at protecting customer privacy is similar to the lawsuit filed against First Source Information Specialists, a company similar to All Star Investigations.
For more information on privacy protection by phone providers, contact that company’s customer service specialist or visit its Web site.