I try to be nice to telemarketers. I know they’re just people getting paid somewhere around minimum wage to be annoying all day long.

However, there was one incident where a newspaper that shall not be named started harassing me daily on my cell phone to subscribe. I finally told the person on the other end, politely but firmly, exactly what I thought of the newspaper and that I would never subscribe, even if wild wolves singing the Barney song came to tear me into pieces. OK, maybe not that last part. But the calls stopped. Hallelujah.

The thing is, I have no idea how they got my cell number.

What if there was someone out there giving my cell number to any place or person who wanted it? I could get calls from annoying newspapers, someone wanting me to visit Branson, “Missoura,” or anyone else who wants my money. This on my cell phone that I carry around all day.

And you know telemarketers. They don’t care what time of day it is, whether it’s 8 a.m. and you’re not up yet, or 2 p.m. and you’re in class with your phone still on high and vibrate, or 6 p.m. and you’re eating dinner.

Enter Intelius, Inc.

It’s a company that gathered 90 million cell phone numbers into an online directory. They had enough consumers and phone companies, like Verizon, complain, that on Feb. 1 they shut the operation down. For now.

Intelius communications manager Liz Murray says they “may have been ahead of [their] time.” That’s OK. I’m sure they’ll do just fine with their other intrusive services, like a search that allows you to find people by their social security numbers. Creepers.

You can bet we haven’t seen the last of them or similar companies. The future prospects are not cool, either – but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Intelius wasn’t giving the numbers away. The company was selling them. Fifteen dollars a number. Pretty good revenue for information that would be free if the person wanted you to have it.

These numbers were not gathered from willing subscribers. No, they were wrenched from unsuspecting cell phone users through public sources such as property records.

Intelius claims to have about half the cell phone numbers in the country. Maybe they have yours. Lucky you when they decide to open shop again.

If the operation had continued, and you wanted your name off the list, you would have had to send a fax to Intelius with proof of your identity. In other words, a copy of your driver’s license. Don’t ask me why anyone would want unsubscribe someone else. Or why it would be so tragic if they did.

So, if you were worried about your privacy in the first place, you would have to violate it even more just to get off the directory.

If we allow for cell phone directories, the next step is text messaging. It’s already a popular way to contact people. It’s like mini e-mail for your phone. But if whoever wants our cell phone numbers can get them, then we may be seeing text messages like this: ——-> Imprv ur sex lif. All for the price of whatever your messaging costs. I’m already getting plenty of those on Webmail, thank you very much.

The company says it wanted the directory because people are starting to use their cell phones more than their land lines. Yeah, and? Why would we want a dozen telemarketing firms to have our numbers so they can call us all day long? No thanks. I like my ring tone, but not that much.

Who would spend $15 on a cell number? Stalkers and people trying to sell you stuff. Without a directory, we’ll have to actually ask people for their numbers. But that may be a price we have to be willing to pay to keep someone from making money off our information. Not to mention a little privacy.

– Bailey Lewis is a sophomore in English from Indianola.