David Mazieres <dm@amsterdam.lcs.mit.edu> notes that he can't prevent his phone number from going to 800 number providers. 800 numbers are, effectively, collect phone calls. The receiving party is paying all call costs, including a surcharge for the collect and number delivery services. Even if you make a "normal" collect call to a residential number, the calling phone number will appear on the receiver's phone bill. That said, there are a few additional points that may be of interest: -- even if David's name is not delivered to the 800 (or caller ID) receiver, there are a variety of commercial services that can link a published phone number with it's owner's name and address. Non-published numbers can be linked to a (fairly small) geographical area, giving useful economic and marketing information. -- a large commercial site can link phone number to name and address while the phone is ringing. This lets them do a variety of triage on the call. For example: -- Never seen this number? Good demographics? Must be a new customer. Answer quickly. -- Ordered lots from us before? Answer quickly. -- Whiner, always complaining? "Your call will be answered by the next available representative." Play 20 minutes of Gershwin. -- Bad demographics? "Your call will be ..." Play 10 minutes of Gershwin. And so forth. Martin Minow minow@apple.com