[tshtf]

The YC funded startup NextCaller (https://nextcaller.com/) provides much of this information too, and it is available from Twilio for $0.10 per lookup.

The extent of the data available from a phone number is a rather frightening. I'm surprised we haven't heard more about services like this from privacy advocates. Here's a sanitized lookup of a friends number (which is actually a Google Voice number):

http://pastebin.com/GUEaTBtD

[kens]

Looking at the personal data in your pastebin link, I thought this field was excessively blunt:

    "status": "successful"

But then I realized it probably indicates the _request_ status.

On a more useful note, aboutthedata.com will show you what Acxiom (one of these customer analysis companies) knows about you. Request the "partner marketing data" emailed to you since that has most of the interesting data. I got this last week and it was fairly accurate. Although I had to laugh at the item: "Prefers BlackBerry".

[rl3]

They should figure out how track the number of times someone has asked to speak to a manager or supervisor in the past. If the caller is an outlier and shows habitual tendencies towards doing so, the call could be routed directly to the call center's elite special operations division.

[dqv]

>elite special operations division

That's the one with people who are really good at pretending like they're the manager, right?

[rl3]

Sure, why not.

[thfuran]

I mean, it's not like I actually care how many people the person I'm talking to manages; I just want someone who can resolve my issue.

[EdHominem]

Right. The goal isn't to find a real manager, the goal is to bypass the "I'm not a manager" excuse.

[billiam]

And then should correlate that with handgun ownership!

[applecore]

Ugh.

    "social_links": [
        {
            "type": "facebook",
            "url": "https://www.facebook.com/XXXX"
        }
    ]

Who needs this information? Why do they even provide it?

[sologoub]

Data mining :(

The reverse append used to be the favorite of the direct mail industry that was the most sophisticated with modeling before advent of the online ecosystem.

You can infer a lot about the person from their profile if it's public and also can try to match back to existing customer records if it's private.

EDIT: "reverse append" is the act of appending data to a phone call record based on the phone number.

[whorleater]

Even worse, apparently they provide:

> DOB, Gender, Marital Status, Household Income, Home Ownership Status, Presence of Children, Home Market Value, Length of Residence, Hight Net Worth, Occupation, & Education Level

from https://nextcaller.com/pricing/

[karambahh]

There is no way this could be legal in the EU and will increasly be frowned upon with GDPR coming into force in May 2018.

[trebor]

The scariest part to me is, there's no way to control how your data is reported except to ensure its accuracy. You can't opt-out.

No opt-out makes NextCaller a creeper—like all the others.

[tzmudzin]

... and that's when you learn to appreciate the allegedly outrageous German data protection laws.

Under those the whole operation of the site would be illegal unless the individuals reported on granted their explicit consent.

[desigooner]

I queried my 2 phone numbers as well as my wife's number - Looking at the reports for my 2 phone numbers and pretty much everything value returned is inaccurate - 99% of the information is for the folks who previously had the number assigned to them, before it was released to me - oddly enough, I'm listed as a "relative" for both numbers.

Any pointers on opting out of such services?

[bostand]

The good thing about this kind of data mining is how easy it is to feed it bogus data.

Give it a try, create a partially fake identity of a fairly rich man and see what happens ;)

[qntty]

Does anyone know what "market_value" refers to?

[rb808]

Looks like Home market value https://www.twilio.com/marketplace/add-ons/nextcaller-advanc...

[jrockway]

Annual income, probably.

[niklasrde]

Then it wouldn't be higher than `household_income`.

Maybe something more along the lines of net worth?

[jrockway]

Ah, didn't see that field in the data dump.

[devoply]

Where do they get household income from?

[nommm-nommm]

Some employers report employment status/income of all their employees to private companies who keep databases. Those databases are used for this sorta thing as well as background checks.

I can't remember the name of the specific database I am thinking of that I know exists, I think its owned by LexisNexis and LexisNexis advertises they have this information - https://www.lexisnexis.com/government/solutions/literature/s...

You also self report your income to credit card companies.

[DashRattlesnake]

My guess is from sources like credit card or loan applications.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/report-income-c...