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The Telecom Digest for April 21, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 103 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
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Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 05:07:34 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Where does 411.com get it's updates?
Message-ID: <iolpmm$hue$1@news.albasani.net>
Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> wrote:
>>I looked up my optometrist in 411.com today, but it showed the wrong
>>number: the listing was for another optical shop that she hasn't worked
>>at in years.
>>Where does 411.com get its updates from? Is there an update process that
>>covers all or most of the directory sites? I'd like to help my OD fix
>>her listing, but I don't want to tell her to update ten sites if I can
>>point her to one.
>411.com, address.com, and phonenumber.com are all whitepages.com. That
>whitepages.com compiles some business listings is new within the last
>year. They have a note that some business listings are from localeze.com
>and that if that's the source, it's noted in the detailed listing, but
>they don't tell you the source of other listings.
>whitepages.com used to be pretty good when the lists they consolidated all
>came from telephone directories but that hasn't been their business model
>in a few years.
>I wouldn't use the word "update" with these online databases. If they buy
>a list, they add the information, and they have no interest in checking
>if the information is out of date or never was correct. There's a difference
>between list consolidation and a useful product.
>Now, Intellius and Dun + Bradstreet, major brokers of business lists,
>make an attempt to call each business telephone number in their database
>once a year (so they claim), although I doubt they reach them all that often.
>If they do encounter bad information, they remove it.
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>Thanks for the info. Is there an update process? In other words, how
>can my eye doctor get her listing corrected?
Oops, I made an error. I didn't mean Intellius, which is a list consolidator
of information about individuals, but InfoUSA as a major source of business
listings.
whitepages.com may or may not identify the source of the listing. If the
source is identified, then she will have to track it down there. If not,
this page has a link to a form to fill out: http://www.whitepages.com/help#edit-business-listing
The trouble is that there are no true sources of listings that don't come
from listings of telephone subscribers from the phone companies themselves.
These sites all sell to each other, and you cannot stop one site that's
consolidated bad information from selling it to another site that treats it
as an original source, but then won't tell anyone using their database where
it came from.
I'd check InfoUSA http://www.expressupdateusa.com/ and dnb.com/ She'll need
to find her DUNS number to use the latter. These two are the source for
other databases but may not be the source of the whitepages.com errors.
I'd also check yellowpages.com which will tell you where the bad information
came from, if it's necessary to call them.
It's a time consuming and ultimately futile process.
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:40:04 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Where does 411.com get it's updates?
Message-ID: <ion5pk$igu$1@news.albasani.net>
Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> wrote:
>>>I looked up my optometrist in 411.com today, but it showed the wrong
>>>number: the listing was for another optical shop that she hasn't worked
>>>at in years.
>>>Where does 411.com get its updates from? Is there an update process that
>>>covers all or most of the directory sites? I'd like to help my OD fix
>>>her listing, but I don't want to tell her to update ten sites if I can
>>>point her to one.
>>411.com, address.com, and phonenumber.com are all whitepages.com. That
>>whitepages.com compiles some business listings is new within the last
>>year. They have a note that some business listings are from localeze.com
>>and that if that's the source, it's noted in the detailed listing, but
>>they don't tell you the source of other listings.
>>whitepages.com used to be pretty good when the lists they consolidated all
>>came from telephone directories but that hasn't been their business model
>>in a few years.
>>I wouldn't use the word "update" with these online databases. If they buy
>>a list, they add the information, and they have no interest in checking
>>if the information is out of date or never was correct. There's a difference
>>between list consolidation and a useful product.
>>Now, Intellius and Dun + Bradstreet, major brokers of business lists,
>>make an attempt to call each business telephone number in their database
>>once a year (so they claim), although I doubt they reach them all that often.
>>If they do encounter bad information, they remove it.
>>***** Moderator's Note *****
>>Thanks for the info. Is there an update process? In other words, how
>>can my eye doctor get her listing corrected?
>Oops, I made an error. I didn't mean Intellius, which is a list consolidator
>of information about individuals, but InfoUSA as a major source of business
>listings.
>whitepages.com may or may not identify the source of the listing. If the
>source is identified, then she will have to track it down there. If not,
>this page has a link to a form to fill out:
>http://www.whitepages.com/help#edit-business-listing
>The trouble is that there are no true sources of listings that don't come
>from listings of telephone subscribers from the phone companies themselves.
>These sites all sell to each other, and you cannot stop one site that's
>consolidated bad information from selling it to another site that treats it
>as an original source, but then won't tell anyone using their database where
>it came from.
>I'd check InfoUSA http://www.expressupdateusa.com/ and dnb.com/ She'll need
>to find her DUNS number to use the latter. These two are the source for
>other databases but may not be the source of the whitepages.com errors.
>I'd also check yellowpages.com which will tell you where the bad information
>came from, if it's necessary to call them.
>It's a time consuming and ultimately futile process.
Whoa. I hadn't looked at the Dun & Bradstreet Web site in a while.
For those who don't know, D&B is a credit reporting and rating service for
businesses. I don't actually know if banks use it to make decisions on
business loans. They sell the rating service to businesses trying to establish
credit worthiness and to businesses that wish to extend credit to other
businesses. D-U-N-S is a number they assign to a business profile,
which may or may not be linked to a credit rating.
As D&B is also a list consolidator, they have an automatic process that
assigns a new D-U-N-S to what it thinks is another location for the same
business. However, a business can get out of date and inaccurate profiles
removed. If they can, a D-U-N-S is linked to a corporate file number assigned
by the state that issued the corporate charter. A business with one location
should have just the one D-U-N-S.
A business can update its profile: https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/
New as of January 8, 2011, the representative of the business updating
the profile must provide his own personally identifying information
including home address and home telephone number which must be used for
pattern matching against credit headers from a personal credit database.
The old eUpdate process to correct or update a D-U-N-S profile didn't used
to be that intrusive.
This crosses a line with personal privacy, so unless one's business
headquarters and home address are one and the same, I wouldn't volunteer
this information. Leave the inaccuracies in place, then.
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:01:28 -0400
From: danny burstein <dannyb.remove-this@and-this-too.panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Info about these cellular snoopers?
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1104200954470.18155@panix5.panix.com>
The Michigan ACLU recently made allegations that
the State Police purchased cellular scanners
which snarf files right off the phones of
people they stop. Without their knowledeg.
Anyone have more info on these products? Can they
perform as well as the ACLU fears?
[newspaper]
The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile
forensics device that can be used to extract information
from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for
minor traffic violations.
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp
.......
ACLU Seeks Records about State Police Searches of Cellphones
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan urged the
Michigan State Police (MSP) today to release information
regarding the use of portable devices which can be used to
secretly extract personal information from cell phones
during routine stops.
.....
Several years ago, MSP acquired portable devices that have
the potential to quickly download data from cell phones
without the owner of the cellphone knowing.
MI-ACLU press release at:
http://www.aclumich.org/issues/privacy-and-technology/2011-04/1542
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:21:31 -0500
From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Info about these cellular snoopers?
Message-ID: <ionf8i$agl$1@dont-email.me>
On 4/20/2011 9:01 AM, danny burstein wrote:
> The Michigan ACLU recently made allegations that
> the State Police purchased cellular scanners
> which snarf files right off the phones of
> people they stop. Without their knowledeg.
>
> Anyone have more info on these products?
One of them is referenced in the article.
http://www.cellebrite.com/forensic-products.html
Looks like it needs to be physically plugged into the phone, so I
don't know about the "without their knowledge", unless that means the
subject has no way of knowing what was done with their cellphone while
it was in the hands of the police. The data dumps don't seem to be
destructive, so it's quite possible that there's no way to tell what
was done while it was out of your sight.
Dave
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:21:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: More on magneto (hand crank) phones
Message-ID: <c3d80636-2b05-4cdd-9062-375613a3ef96@e26g2000vbz.googlegroups.com>
The April 2015 issue of Singing Wires of TCI (Telephone Collectors
International) had an article about postwar rural telephone service,
including magneto phones. It had photos of "Leich 901--the last
magneto phone made by Leich" and a "post WW II Leich 86". It also
mentioned the late 1940s Stromberg-Carlson No. 125 magneto switchboard
and the Kellogg line, and the SC 1248 and Kellogg 1070 magneto
phones. (It appears these telephone sets are available for sale on-
line.)
The article discussed that after WW II most rural area phone service
was magneto, but in 1949 the Rural Electrification Act was amended to
modernize rural phone systems with dial.
Reference is made to "Builder of the Past--Architect of the Future,
The History of the REA/RUS Telephone Program" by Linda M. Buckley, c
1999 Foundation for Rural Service.
There was a post in this newsgroup 10/11/2008 about an India company
that makes new phones, Telereach:
http://telereach.tradeindia.com/Exporters_Suppliers/Exporters/hp/scripts/product_details.html?product_id=93016&catalog_id=7210
Would anyone have any experience with that company or telephone set?
I first thought that kind of thing would still have modern usage in
special situations, such as construction or very rural outposts. But
then I realized modern walkie-talkies are cheap and powerful and
obviously do away with the need to lay wire.
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