The 1997-98 White Pages is going to be more than just a telephone book; it will be an Internet guide as well. Starting in February in Westchester, New York, Nynex plans to give customers the chance to include their URLs and email addresses in their white page listings when they sign up for a phone service, Wired News has learned. Pacific Bell will follow suit later in the year.
Pacific Bell and Nynex have both spent the past year researching interest in the Internet, and have decided that their customers are using email as much as their telephones. Says Kathy Stephens, product manager of the Pacific Bell White Pages, "We feel it's a part of the information age, a necessary way that you now contact people." Nynex, which currently offers the Big Yellow Web guide to national email, phone numbers, and address listings, also plans to start a new "Internet Service Guide" section in its phone books as a service to new users looking for BBS, ISP, or Web consultant information.
American's won't be the first to get their homepages listed underneath their phone numbers. Bell Canada recently announced that Canadian residents and businesses will be able to list their email addresses and URLs in the Bell Canada White Pages, beginning in early 1997, for an initial $18 charge ($35 for businesses) and a monthly fee of $1.65. The Internet addresses will not, however, be available by calling 411 directory assistance, since it's "too difficult" to convey Internet symbols - such as "@," "/" or "." - over the phone.
Pac Bell and Nynex customers might be the only American Netizens who get to see their Net addresses in print. "In order to make changes in our White Pages listings we have to go through a tariffing process in each separate jurisdiction," says Stephanie Hobbs of Bell Atlantic. "That's seven different states, and we just don't think there's enough demand."
Having so much personal information available in one handy location may be a boon to those who like to be accessible at all times; privacy concerns, however, are a different matter. What happens if someone misuses that information for marketing, or even harassment, purposes? Says Mark Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, "It is a privacy issue, but it's also a lot easier for spammers to collect addresses in an electronic form rather than a paper form." John Gilmore of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says, "Any time you put yourself into a public directory, you are inviting communications from strangers. That's the point of being in the public directory."
