As you may have seen in the media, there is a new service on the horizon, known as 118 800. It is basically a directory enquiries service for personal mobile numbers. Various sources including the BBC and Sky websites, and the Observer newspaper recently ran reports on this service and incorrectly stated that the prime source of mobile telephone information comes from market research companies who ‘contact individuals and ask if they would be prepared to allow their numbers to be used for commercial purposes’. We would like to make it clear Viewpoint do not have any involvement in this in any sense, least of all selling any respondent details from our projects! We think this is a journalistic error and that they mean direct marketing companies, but we have made the MRS aware and they agree that ‘the use of data collected for research only for the purpose of constructing a telephone directory would be plainly unlawful’. According to 118 800 their database is populated mainly ‘from companies who collect mobile telephone numbers from customers in the course of doing business and have been given permission by the customers to share those numbers’.