Cellular phone numbers are considered private numbers. What this means is that if a person were to perform a forward search on a cellular phone subscriber, they would not be provided with their cell phone number. Likewise, if a person were to conduct a reverse cell phone search, they would not be given the phone number owner’s personal details such as their name and address.

Since cellular phone numbers are not considered public information, cell phone subscribers have certain rights to privacy that they should be aware of. For instance, did you know that telemarketers who use autodialing devices are prohibited to call cellular phones, and if they breach this law and a cell phone consumer complains they can face significant fines?

An autodialing device is used by virtually all telemarketing companies, because it saves a telemarketer time as it does the phone dialing for them. The only telemarketers that can legally call you if they use this device are those that you have permitted to do so by giving them authorization to call you on your cell. Other than that, you can protect your privacy by filing complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) or Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Will cell phone numbers ever be considered public? Likely not, especially since phone subscribers pay for both incoming and outgoing calls, which means they pay for all calls, regardless if they are wanted or not. Moreover, not too long ago there was talk of creating a Wireless 411, but this idea has virtually been put on indefinite hold.

Most of the major cell phone companies thought about creating an opt-in public directory for cell phones. This would allow cell phone subscribers who wanted to participate in the directory the opportunity to include their number, while those who wished to keep their numbers private the choice to leave their number out of the directory. However, in the end it was decided not to go ahead with the directory as too many concerns regarding privacy issues were raised.

Keep in mind, if you want to know all of your rights as a phone consumer, you should look into the rules created by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). If you want to avoid unwanted calls it is also a good idea to register your cell phone with the National Do Not Call Registry, and to make sure that you never give your cell number out to just anyone, nor should you post it anywhere online.

Every now and again we all need a cell phone number to be able to get in touch with someone. However, when it comes to cellular phone numbers, they aren’t as available as landline telephone numbers when searching directories. In fact, it has recently been legislated that it is not legal to have a standard cell phone number directory on the internet. The reason for this is to protect the privacy of the cell phone users.

Today’s landline telephone numbers are easy to obtain because they are considered to be public domain. Though that does make it easier for friends and family to obtain your telephone number so that they can contact you, it also means that telemarketers from all kinds of businesses, charities, political campaigns, and scams are also able to reach you.

We get enough hassle from telemarketers and scams on our home phones – at dinnertime and during prime time television every night – so cell phone providers are doing everything that they can to protect the privacy of their subscribers and prevent this same hassle from occurring on their mobile phones.

However, this doesn’t mean that cell phone numbers aren’t searchable at all. They are only unavailable in a forward search. When it comes to reverse cell phone searching, it’s a whole other ballgame. This is because reverse cell phone searching requires you to have the number already – for example, if the person called you and the number came up on your Caller ID display.

In order to protect your privacy, it is legal for a reverse phone search to be made, so that you can find out the information associated with a cell phone number you’ve already obtained. This does not put the privacy of the cell phone users at risk, but instead helps to protect the privacy of people who are being called by cellular phone users.

Therefore, while you can’t look up someone’s cell phone number online, if you already have their cellular phone number, you can perform a reverse cell phone lookup service and discover the name, address, cellular provider, and other related information regarding that phone number.

You may have used a forward search to obtain the phone number of a friend, relative, co-worker, etc. However, if you were successful in finding their number, you would learn that it belongs to their residential landline, and not their cell phone. Thus, if your intention was to us a forward directory to obtain their wireless number, the reason you did not obtain this information is because it is illegal to give out mobile phone numbers through a forward lookup.

Cell phone numbers are private and do not exist in any type of phone directory. It is believed that in order to protect the privacy rights of wireless users, their phone numbers should not be made publicly available, especially when many mobile consumers are charged for all calls they make and receive, regardless if the call is local or long distance.

Hence, can you imagine what would happen if all a person had to do was enter someone’s name into a forward search to find out their cellular number? Suddenly, mobile customers would be receiving an increase in unwanted calls that they have to pay for.

Can you pay for a forward search to find out someone’s mobile number? No. Even a paid search is illegal. Therefore, though you may find a website that claims to provide free forward cell phone lookups, you should not trust this service or the information they provide. Simply ignore it all together.

You may be wondering why it is acceptable for paid reverse cell phone lookups to exist but not a forward trace. The simple fact of the matter is when a person uses a cell phone trace they already have the wireless number; they are only interested in learning information on the owner. Finding out this information is not illegal or an invasion of privacy, because it enables the searcher to protect their own phone privacy if they receive calls from a number they do not recognize.

What can you do if you want to find out a person’s cell number?

- You can ask the person for it

- You can ask a mutual acquaintance if they have it

- You can try searching for the person and their contact details using a social networking site.

Finally, you should know that as long as wireless phone numbers remain public and unlisted, a forward cell phone search will not exist.

Mary is a bookworm that loves to write about technology and ethical issues.

Phone pranks may be fun to the prankster, but it certainly is no laughing matter to the call recipient. If you have been receiving prank calls and are fed up with being harassed, it’s time for you to stop ignoring these calls and find out more about the caller with a reverse phone lookup.

A backwards phone search can help you learn the location of a prankster as well as their identity. However, in order to use this lookup service you will require the phone number of the nefarious individual. Therefore, if you do not yet have caller ID, it is in your best interest to obtain this service from your phone company because it can help your protect your phone privacy, and is very beneficial in certain circumstances such as crank calls.

When you have obtained the phone number associated with the annoying caller, enter the complete phone number (10-digits) into the query box of an online reverse phone lookup. If you are in luck, the number will be linked to a listed landline phone, and you will find out the last name, and address of the number owner. However, it is very probable that the prankster is aware of reverse number searches and will use a private number or caller ID spoofing so he or she will be harder to trace.

If the phone number is private, conduct another free search, but this time use a backwards phone trace that includes wireless numbers in its directory. The results for this search should at least provide you with the city and state associated with the number, so you should have some idea as to the general location of the mischief maker. Furthermore, you can still learn their identity and a more definite location with a reverse cell phone lookup, but you will need to pay a nominal fee for the private information.

Once you know their info, the next time the individual calls, address them by their name and tell them you know where they live and you have notified the authorities. This is usually enough to make the calls stop.

Its the usual story. We’ve just sat down in our home office for work. About 20 minutes later, we just reach our optimal state of mental work flow. Just as we begin concentrating fully on what we’re doing, “Ring Ring Ring”. We can not ignore it. We’re waiting for an important call. A friend, relative, business associate. So we pick it up and what do we read on the caller ID display? “Inbound call”.

Its disturbing, to put it mildly! You can be on the federal do-not-call list, order call block, set your computer up to filter specific incoming calls based on their names or numbers, purchase cell phone service which is protected by regulation from the DMA and telemarketers, and still get these calls!

And cell phone privacy only works to your disadvantage. Thats right – they have all the information about you they could want – enough to keep bothering you for years if you let them. Yet you can’t pull up a single piece of information about a number marked as ‘private’ from the phone book or through any free resources on the Internet. Perhaps an outdated carrier or an inaccurate designation of: land-line. But that isn’t going to let us identify and stop these perpetrators.

Instead, a new type of website has been created which we can search to find information about all types of numbers. They can be cellular numbers, Wifi or VOIP phones, unlisted private numbers, or really any other type. These websites will show you the name, address, background info, business info, carrier, and more up to date information about 98% of all phone numbers. They collect this information from millions of public records held by businesses world wide. It is available on their websites to search in a very short time in comparison to how long it takes to find it through regular search engines.

Once we have a name and carrier, this is really the only information we need to stop most of these distractions. The vast majority are unscrupulous marketers motivated by financial gain. They employ automated tricks to make their millions from unsuspecting phone users. All we have to do is all their phone company with their name, information, and brief list of their activities (time of day they called, message) to have them shut down. If the number is in fact a prankster or harassing person, we can call parents or the appropriate authorities. With their personal information, the problem can be handled much more efficiently. Many times, simply knowing that they are no longer anonymous is enough to stop these callers.

For decades, millions of us across the country have searched for the phone numbers of friends, family members, associates, even future acquaintances by their name. We have many reasons for doing this. We may have lost their number, they may have changed their number, and in the case of work colleagues or new acquaintances, we may not even have their number yet. I’ve also encountered numerous occasions where myself and a new friend agreed to contact each other on the phone at a later date, and forgot to exchange numbers. Sometimes it happens in the heat of the moment.

Searching by Name for Cell Phone Numbers

So now that the vast majority of our population is switching to cell phone numbers, can we still find them by name? The short answer is no . It is currently against industry practices to allow cell phone directories which provide search by name for cell phone numbers. The primary reason for this is the theory that telemarketers and the DMA will begin soliciting cellular phone users for selling products.

However, reality is not so simple as some would have you believe. Regardless whether cell phone numbers are made public, it would still be illegal via federal regulations for telemarketers to call cell phones. The Direct Marketing Association themselves has pledged to avoid calling cellphones with respect to the fact that we have to pay for our minutes!

So unfortunately, all that happens is we lose the ability to find our current or potential future contacts in turn for the false sense of security associated with the idea of privacy protection from telemarketing calls. On top of this, we’re still subject to any potential privacy violations on the part of government or regulating authorities, whether it can be justified or not!

How Cell Phone Privacy Fails

The truth is, current cell phone privacy practices are not even that effective. Millions of corporations worldwide have been mining your data for decades and keeping it in their own databases. Almost everything there is to know about a person can already be found out by someone using the correct tools.

And there are already many calls coming to cell phones from unscrupulous parties which have located your number. Ever notice that ‘cellular call’, ‘unknown call’, ‘inbound call’, or other ambiguous, obnoxious entry on your caller id? I thought so. I get them almost daily. You likely do to. Cell phones are not exempt. WiFi phones are not exempt. Even house phones on the national ‘do not call’ registry are not exempt from these annoyances! And these illegal calls would be entirely unabated by additional privacy measures! So much for the idea of a government saving the world’s population from danger.

How to Fix the problem with your Own Hands

Yet all things have a natural balance when they’re not artificially manipulated by some intervening party, and technology is no exception. Most people will never have access to your number. But the few that do, and place obnoxious, even illegal calls on a regular basis, can still be stopped. How? By identifying and reporting them. The key is identifying them, and for this we can use a ‘reverse phone directory’. These directories simply take information from the already available millions of public records and put it all in one place. We can search them in seconds and find a caller’s name, address, background info, associated business entities, and more.

Hence, even without further regulation, our numbers can stay private from the majority while we get to keep the tools which help us stop the criminal minority from doing what they will always be able to do – reduce the quality of our lives!

Many people frequently use reverse phone directories in order to help them to identify unknown numbers that have phoned them. However, at the same time, other people feel threatened by these online services, wondering if they may be an invasion of their personal privacy.

This is because with the great threat that we currently face regarding identity theft, the thought that people can find out information about you – such as your name and telephone number – using only your telephone number can be somewhat disquieting. However, phone companies have taken these feelings into consideration and have allowed the option for people to opt-out of these directories. All that is required is a simple phone call in order to un-list your telephone number if you’d rather that your telephone number does not show up in a reverse phone search.

There other ways for you to protect your privacy as well as making your number unlisted. These additional options have come about throughout the history of phone searches and reverse phone directories. Many laws and regulations have been developed in order to protect your privacy. One of the most important laws in this effort is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which was passed back in 1991. The TCPA was devised in order to restrict the actions of telemarketers and to provide people with greater control over their personal privacy when it came to telephone use. In 2003, the National Do Not Call Registry was created to allow people to choose not to allow telemarketers to contact them.

Indeed, there are some telemarketers who are exempt from the regulations of the Do Not Call list, such as charities, political campaigners, and government agencies, but this does eliminate the sales calls that many people find frustrating in the evenings. Furthermore, regulations were put into place regarding cell phones, where telemarketers are not allowed to call cell phone numbers using automated dialers (which are used by all telemarketing companies because it is too costly and time consuming to hand dial every number).