In this week’s column, I am pleased to share two incidents that were brought to my attention from the community: one involving a resident woman, and the other recounted by my dear friend about her son.
The first incident concerns the woman’s journey to find a rental apartment. She began contacting brokers through online platforms, and as soon as she inquired about an apartment, she was bombarded with messages from multiple numbers—indicating that brokers do not adhere to digital privacy ethics, as they share phone numbers among themselves.
The problem did not end there. After selecting the apartment and securing basic services like water and electricity, and immediately after having the rental contract certified at a service center, she started receiving calls from internet marketers. How did they get her number? And why did they contact her without prior consent, despite her registration in the Do Not Call Registry (DNCR)?
The second incident involves my friend’s son, who obtained an electronic license but had to visit a service center to complete the registration. Once he received the license, he was flooded with offers from telecom and internet companies. Not only that, but other companies also contacted him before the license expired, trying to renew it.
A phone number is the primary identifier used by all entities, and the digital identity is linked to it. Therefore, when requests are submitted using this identity, the number is at risk of being leaked—this applies to rental contracts and other transactions that display phone numbers.
Proposed Solutions:
First solution:
I suggest creating a unique digital identity number that links all transactions and systems, so that no one can view or access the phone number when it is used. Instead, the service identifier number would be used without exposing the individual’s actual phone number unnecessarily.
Second solution:
Remove phone numbers from documents and replace them with identification numbers, restricting access to phone numbers to authorized entities only, rather than including them in every transaction.
