The site www.whocall.info enables to search for unlisted mobile numbers from all over the world. One can search by phone numbers: entering a number with the international dialing code (such as 372 in Estonia) will prompt the programme to produce the name of the owner of the number. The article’s author Piret Reiljan said that she found many numbers of high-ranking politicians, including Estonian prime minister Mr Taavi Rõivas.
The site does not perform the opposite search: it does not provide numbers of persons if one searches by name, so one has to previously know the number to get the owner’s name. Even so, it is scary to imagine that the search could also be made to work the other way around. It is not known how all these personal number and names might be used. All we know is that it provides numbers, which have been unlisted by their owners and which are not published anywhere.
The owner of the website is not known. The site itself does not provide any contact information besides the name Whocall Ltd.
“This domain name was registered on October 30 of this year, and its owners are not identifiable from public sources,” said RIA expert Veldre.
According to Veldre it is really possible that someone in various ways collected telephone numbers published on Internet and put them in super database. “The situation is complicated by the fact that under the law of another country may be the case that such information gathering and serving is legal activity. I believe that the Data Protection Inspectorate have their say on this issue,” said the expert.
Veldre added, however, that if it is confirmed that the database contains numbers that should not be publicly available and their owners confirm that they did not made their numbers public, them it maybe be possible to find out how these numbers were leaked.
Links:
http://www.balticbusinessnews.com/?PublicationId=ac63e73d-4922-4f28-9675-a2629bb087c7
http://www.aripaev.ee/uudised/2014/11/26/ekspert-ehk-isegionnestub-lekkimise-koht-tuvastada-
http://www.aripaev.ee/uudised/2014/11/26/uks-lekkekoht-facebook