NATION The 411 on cell-number directory: Privacy concerns loom

Safety and call charges are among reasons for keeping numbers unlisted.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- California's motto is "Eureka" (I have found it). But the state might as well add: Now that I have, leave me alone.
Nearly half of Californians choose not to be listed in the phone book, making themselves the most intentionally difficult people to reach in the nation after residents of Nevada and Arizona, many of whom migrated from the don't-call-me-I'll-call-you state.
Now this penchant for privacy is casting a shadow over the wireless industry's plan to compile the nation's first 411 directory of cell phone numbers by early next year. State lawmakers are trying to force the industry to get permission from consumers to divulge their mobile phone numbers, a move that could set the tone for the rest of the country.
The industry has agreed to comply, but advocates here say promises aren't enough when it comes to protecting residents' anonymity. Despite a reputation for being laid-back and open, Californians are a rather clannish bunch who blame for their insularity everything from telemarketers to the Internet to the Hollywood celebrity factor.
"I like the freedom of giving my number to somebody and knowing that only they will call," said Daniel Vasquez, an unlisted San Jose, Calif., sheet metal worker who feels even more guarded about his cell-phone number because he is charged for unwanted calls.
His family is one of nearly 6 million California households that pay 14 cents a month to keep their phone numbers out of the white pages.
Who's listed
New England residents, by contrast, are an open book: 93 percent in Vermont are listed, 89 percent in Maine and 85 percent in New Hampshire. Pollsters say one reason New Englanders may not mind being in the phone book is that many own only vacation homes there and are rarely around to actually answer the phone.
There's no single explanation for the Golden State's aloofness.
One factor may be the cheaper cost of being unlisted. In Minnesota, where fewer than a third of households are unlisted, residents must fork over $1.45 a month to maintain their privacy. (But price can't explain everything: Nevada and Arizona charge about $2 a month and have higher unlisted rates than California.)
California is also home to many new arrivals, who are living among strangers.
"California is really the start-over state," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, Calif. "Maybe it's people coming here to start life anew and not wanting to be found."
And yet Floridians are just as mobile, but more than two-thirds of them choose to be listed in the phone book.
So what gives?
For Fremont, Calif., resident Christianna Murfalen, it's all about safety, a sentiment shared by many Californians, particularly with regard to their children, who often have their own phone lines or cell phones.
"I'm hoping no one would ever stalk me, but just in case, I don't want my numbers listed," said Murfalen, 22, a supervisor at an electronics store.
Overall numbers
Nationwide, slightly more than a third of Americans are unlisted, prompting pollsters to rely on random-digit dialing rather than drawing from the phone book to get a representative sample for opinion surveys. When they do reach someone in California, it's not always easy to persuade them to participate.
"Californians are just different, no offense," said Linda B. Piekarski, the head of research at Survey Sampling International, a Connecticut-based polling company that provided the San Jose Mercury News with the unlisted rates. "They just have this obsession with privacy."
California officials essentially promoted phone-number privacy in the early 1990s during a heated debate over the launch of Caller ID. In a far-reaching public education campaign, the Public Utilities Commission spread the word that if you are unlisted, your number is automatically blocked from being displayed.