Customers of BT will be familiar with its 1471 “call return”
service which identifies the date, time and number of the last
caller. However, out of concern that the service was breaching the
UK’s Data Protection Act of 1998, a new service allows customers to
delete the information of their last caller.
The Times reported on the new 1475 service last week and
speculated that it will “frustrate spouses who suspect their
partner of infidelity.” The newspaper put this point to BT and a
spokesman for the company replied: “We were compelled to introduce
the service under the Act. We can’t be held responsible for how
people choose to utilise it. The service isn’t something we have
actively marketed.”
The free service is not intended to protect the privacy of the
caller; the caller can already choose to withhold his or her number
from the 1471 service. This can be done permanently, by dialling
150, or on a per-call basis, by prefixing the dialled number with
141.
Instead, the new service protects the privacy of the recipient
of a call, who is likely to use the service only where he shares
the telephone line with others from whom he wants to hide the
details of calls received.
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