Greypages Does Reverse-Search On Phone Numbers In Oz
WEBSITE http://greypag.es has recently stepped out from the shadows, to help you fill that void that the White pages just won’t, but is it legal?
Yes, I’m talking about a reverse phone book. Unlike a standard phone book where you do a look up of someone’s name and grab their phone number, a reverse phone book lets you type in a number (or a suburb, street, etc) and find out who that number belongs to.
Earlier this year the Australian Communication Media Authority (ACMA) shut down the site saying:
“This year, ACMA used its information-gathering powers to issue two notices on a reverse-search directory operating under the name ‘Auslocate’. ACMA’s information-gathering powers were also used to obtain information on another reverse-search directory known as ‘greypages’. While ACMA was unable to establish the origin of the data used in the directories, the information received suggested that the origin was not likely to be the IPND.” – ACMA
An insider has told us that the method used to gather the data is available through a phone book CD Sensis provide consumers with.
The data was then extracted and indexed.
The creator of the site posted a blog outlining how the site is meant to now stay bullet proof from shut down.
Haha! The greypages thing was around a few years back as well, using data from one of the last ‘phone book on CD’ things sold retail. There were legitimate reasons for shutting it down at the time, first and foremost it was a copyright violation. If you look into the EFA archives for 2004 you’ll find a discussion.
Apparently some companies simply send the White Pages hardcopy overseas to be typed in or OCR+verify with cheap labour.