[matrix]

HelpHive (the directory) is absolutely in the wrong here. Their business model is unethical at best; it's on par with spamming and link-farming.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that the founder of HelpHive is a former RealNetworks employee.

[btilly]

Is it the technology or the business you are unhappy with?

When I was at Rent.com we implemented a very similar telephone system around the time that we were acquired by eBay. The critical difference was that the apartments on our site all had contracts with us and were all paying us per person actually placed in the building. Our initial implementation also didn't have an opt-out, but we had to implement that fairly quickly because of very similar issues with automated answering systems.

The main reasons that we implemented the system were to improve collection rates on our invoices, and improve the rate at which leases go reported to us. (It is amazing how many apartment building owners wanted to cheat us...)

I'm curious whether people's outrage at this technology would extend to that implementation by a different company with a much more clearly established business relationship.

[jamesbritt]

"I'm curious whether people's outrage at this technology would extend to that implementation by a different company with a much more clearly established business relationship."

The tech is fine. The idea of involving people without their consent is what's wrong.

It makes sense as a way to ensure tracking of referrals, but all parties need to be in agreement on it, and users need to be told that they are going through an intermediary.

[willwagner]

To me, unless the phone number is clearly marked that it's from HelpHive as opposed to the business, it's similar to a phishing site; it could really get delisted by google which would be the kiss of death for this company's business.

I use google all the time to quickly get contact info; I'll have to check the source a lot more carefully if this becomes a commonplace.