A 10-Digit Code To Your Life: Your Phone Number

The next time someone asks you for your cellphone number, you may want to think twice about giving it. The phone number is more than just a bunch of digits. It is increasingly being used as a link to private information maintained by all sorts of companies, including money lenders and social networks. It can be used to monitor and predict what you buy, look for online or even watch on television. It has become kind of a key into the room of your life and information about you. However, the phone number is not a legally regulated piece of information like a Social Security number, which companies are required to keep private. That is a growing issue for young people, since two sets of digits may well be with them for life: their Social Security number and their phone number. Nearly half of all American households have given up their landlines and have only wireless phone service – a figure that has risen more than 10 percentage points in just three years. Among people of ages 25 to 29, the share of homes that have only wireless phone service stands at 73%. In fact, investigators find that a phone number is often even more useful than a Social Security number because it is tied to so many databases and is connected to a device you almost always have with you. The use of the phone number in new, unanticipated ways has echoes in the history fo the Social Security number, which was created in 1936. Its original purpose was to enable the nation’s nascent social insurance system to maintain accurate records of workers covered under the programme. Gradually, the simplicity of using a unique number to identify people encouraged the widespread use by other government agencies in the 1960s. That Social Security numbers are so broadly used and often so poorly protected is a major cause of the current epidemic of identity theft. The total losses in the US from stolen identities used in crimes like credit card and loan fraud were $15 billion last year. And 11% of Americans say they lost money last year in a telephone swindle. To combat fraud prevention, Affirm, a start-up that offers an alternative to credit cards for online purchases, mines data sources and approves or rejects a loan within a minute or so. Affirm asks borrowers for a few pieces of personal information, including their names and dates of birth. But the strongest identifier and conduit to useful information in the number. When a customer wants to get an installment loan to buy something the firm sends the person a temporary personal identification number. The ID numbers remain valid for only 30 seconds to 180 seconds, increasing the odds that the person trying to borrow or buy is indeed the same person who owns the phone with that number. It’s not foolproof, but if a cellphone is lost or stolen, it is typically locked. But a cellphone-only life presents problems for many professionals and workers at start ups and small businesses, who make business calls on their personal cell phones.