Ads sent to private number

Henry James

I rang customer service of a large chain as I had a question regarding one of their products. Even though my phone was set not to show my number I started getting texts ads and survey from them. How do they do this and is there any way to protect from this in future.?

Edit for typo

GBX

Had you already had dealings with them prior to this call? Like accepting their terms, albeit unknowingly?

If your number was hidden they can't unhide it.

Ten Pin

I vaguely remember something similar happen a few years ago with a large company, caller ID hidden but they could see the number and used it subsequently for contact but not for spam etc.

They may have access to additional data from the provider, sneaky and might be overstepping data privacy as phone numbers are considered personal data which they probably need to ask for explicitly.

Might be worth pushing back on them by asking where they got specific permission to use your number for what appears to be data harvesting. Also ask them to delete any data that they have no legal basis for retaining. A phone number shouldn't be needed unless they need to contact you for more information on a purchase etc

Henry James

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121080141#Comment_121080141

No previous dealings. Well they did unhide it. I got text survey etc.

Henry James

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121080354#Comment_121080354

I had no previous dealings. I saw something in one of their stores and phoned to enquire about it. My caller id was hidden.

How would they have access to my phone company data

Ten Pin

"How would they have access to my phone company data"

Just speculating but the likes of emergency services may be able to see all caller IDs regardless of whether the caller sets ID to be hidden. Commercial companies might be able to avail of this by paying the networks to access such a feature (if such a feature exists).

Or it could be revealed by the phones operating system etc much like IP addresses are sent when connecting to any website.

There's also unique identifiers such as IMSI & ICCID that a company may be able to access and match to a mobile networks database of mobile numbers etc.

The fact that it's a large chain suggests that they are more likely to be paying to access data like this. If they are involved in arranging finance on products they sell then mobile phone data is something they possibly use to assess credit rating of consumers.

Ask the company's data controller to explain how they got your number when it's set as private...IMO we probably aren't aware of even a quarter of the ways our data is being accessed/processed without our knowledge.

Henry James

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081451#Comment_121081451

Very interesting thanks.

GIMP

Emergency services can definitely see all numbers and so can many service providers regardless of hiding your number

Henry James

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082661#Comment_121082661

How do emergency services see it. Could this company use the same process?

Victor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121080141#Comment_121080141

Not quite.

If a caller sets ID to be hidden, it is probably just a request to hide, not an actual hide. Someone was saying they were getting prank phone calls at work. What the prankster didn't realise is that they were phoning a phone company. A call was returned and it turned out to be a school. The principal answered and it was easy enough to track down who was in the principal's office at that time.

Were you phoning a phone company?

GBX

Fair enough. Hope you get sorted OP

Henry James

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082927#Comment_121082927

My number doesn't show if I call my land line or other mobile so it's actual hide.

The company in question are not a phone company

Victor

"My number doesn't show if I call my land line or other mobile so it's actual hide." - in those cases, the request to hide the number has to be respected, the business you are talking about would seem to be bypassing that.

Henry James

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083287#Comment_121083287

The request to hide is made to the business receiving the call? Not before it reaches them?

supue

By legal requirement, all calling party numbers (number of the person making the call) are passed between operators via CDR's (call detail records). This allows Vodafone to bill Three for example for sending the call to their customer - if they didn't have the originating number they wouldn't know who to charge for interconnect. For hidden or masked numbers, the calling party number is transmitted in a different location in the file, and the receiving network respects this when the call is made to the receipient - e.g. CLI or telephone number is hidden.

For emergency services, they are able to see this number, however supressed for other purposes.

What could have happened in this example is that the provider of the phone services for the chain, may have provided a record of all inbound calls and inadvertently included the masked CLI's, however I would have an issue with that if it occured to me.

Victor

Question - did you use a freephone or low cost phone number?

Henry James

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121086397#Comment_121086397

Yes, a 1800 number.

SweetCaliber

Company I work for, for whatever reason the VOIP system shows private numbers if the callers network is Eir but they are hidden for callers from Vodafone/Three.

Henry James

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121086705#Comment_121086705

Is 1800 voip?

SweetCaliber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121086845#Comment_121086845

No idea, we've an 01 number but use VOIP