DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Thryv, Inc. — a leading small business software provider — announced today it has appointed Gordon Henry as executive vice president and chief strategy officer (CSO). Henry moves into his new role after serving Thryv for the past five years as chief marketing officer.

As CSO, Henry will be responsible for formulating long-term strategy, developing new sales channel opportunities, establishing strategic partnerships and M&A opportunities, and generating a range of events and other client acquisition activities. Henry will also be tasked with enhancing Thryv’s image via public relations initiatives and providing direction to the company’s advertising and brand teams. Henry will continue to report to CEO Joe Walsh and serve on Thryv’s Executive Committee.

During his tenure as Thryv’s CMO, Henry helped build the company’s new product lines, develop the company’s client acquisition program, and transform the company’s brand into the recognizable, trusted SaaS leader it is today.

“Gordon has been a key contributor to Thryv’s transformation over the past five years,” said CEO Joe Walsh. “I congratulate him on this new appointment. His understanding of the company’s vision will enable him to refine our strategy for the future and expand our relationships with important outside partners including agency resellers, corporate partners, affiliates and franchise clients.”

This appointment comes during a period of significant transformation at Thryv. Earlier this year the company re-branded itself from DexYP to Thryv Inc. and launched new versions of its flagship SaaS products, Thryv and Thryv Leads. The company has also enhanced its client onboarding capabilities which have resulted in improved client engagement, retention and lifetime value.

About Thryv, Inc.

Thryv, Inc. builds and owns the simple, easy-to-use software Thryv® that helps small business owners with the daily demands of running a business; and allows them to take control and be more successful. Thryv provides modernized business functions allowing them to manage their time, communicate with clients, and get paid. These include building a digital customer list, communicating with customers via email and text, updating business listings across the internet, accepting appointments, sending notifications and reminders, managing ratings and reviews, generating estimates and invoices, processing payments, and issuing invoices and coupons.

Thryv delivers business services to more than 400,000 small businesses across America that enable them to compete and win in today’s economy.

Thryv also provides consumer services through our market-leading search, display and social products—and connects local businesses via The Real Yellow Pages® from the over 25 million monthly visitors of DexKnows.com®, Superpages.com® and yellowpages.com search portals; and local print directories. For more information about the company, visit thryv.com.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190926005008/en/

ORLANDO, FL. - Central Florida’s first autonomous shuttles are on the road in Lake Nona, Orlando’s fastest-growing community. The fully electric, driverless shuttles will operate daily on an inaugural fixed route connecting the community’s entertainment district with residential communities. Together, with mobility solutions provider Beep and shuttle manufacturer NAVYA, Lake Nona’s autonomous shuttles are setting the standard for new mobility technology in the region.

Images available here.

In addition to supporting improved mobility at the local level, Lake Nona’s new autonomous shuttle service supports Florida’s ambitions to become a national leader in autonomous vehicle testing. Florida recently passed legislation to help cultivate the autonomous vehicle sector by bringing more businesses to the state for autonomous testing. Lake Nona, Beep, and NAVYA join a growing list of public and private companies exploring innovative solutions to improve connectivity within this community and beyond.

“In Lake Nona, we dreamed of creating an infrastructure that would enable tomorrow’s innovators to thrive… tomorrow is here!” said Tavistock Group Senior Managing Director Rasesh Thakkar. “As proof, we're excited to advance, along with our two visionary Mayors, the relationship with Beep and NAVYA creating the region’s first autonomous shuttle program launching the future of mobility."

Bringing the first autonomous shuttles to Central Florida further demonstrates Lake Nona’s commitment to testing new technology within its living lab where companies, organizations, and entrepreneurs convene to explore new trends and ideas. From a first-of-its-kind partnership with the local public school system and YMCA to a longitudinal health study for residents, Lake Nona continues to be a model of what a smart and connected community can accomplish.

Lake Nona’s shuttles each hold up to 10 passengers and will operate at a maximum speed of 15 mph as part of the pilot program. The shuttles operate daily from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 6 - 10 p.m., though hours may change as the shuttles become more integrated with traffic flow. Eventually, the plan is to increase the number of shuttles and expand the route network in the future.

Lake Nona’s autonomous shuttles are operated by Beep and manufactured by French company NAVYA, a global leader in autonomous vehicles and driving systems for the transport of passengers and goods. Beep is the exclusive dealer of NAVYA’s AUTONOM® SHUTTLES in Florida. Earlier this year, the two industry leaders announced an innovative development partnership for shared mobility and autonomous vehicle research. Lake Nona’s autonomous shuttle service is the first pilot deployment of the research partnership.

“We are very excited to announce the deployment of our autonomous mobility services in Lake Nona,” said Beep CEO Joe Moye. “This is a significant milestone for Beep, our partners, and urban mobility altogether. We are pleased to work with Lake Nona, the City of Orlando and Orange County to deliver this cutting-edge transportation solution to the community.”

The shuttles are monitored in Beep’s headquarters and central command center located in Lake Nona Town Center. The command center’s sophisticated system uses the latest technology to monitor the movement and operation of each shuttle providing valuable data that will continually optimize vehicle performance.

“NAVYA is excited to work with our partners at Beep and in Lake Nona to bring its AUTONOM® SHUTTLE, a globally proven first-and-last-mile transportation solution in operation around the globe, to Central Florida. Lake Nona is an ideal environment to showcase the ways in which driverless vehicles integrate seamlessly into our everyday lives,” said NAVYA COO Jerome Rigaud.

Beep’s mobility solution includes integration of a leading fleet orchestration platform from technology partner Bestmile that enables Beep to continually monitor for the safety and security of riders. Additionally, Bestmile optimizes all aspects of shuttle performance, including vehicle maintenance and service delivery, as well as data analytics and machine learning for continuous improvement.

“Bestmile is proud to be part of this initiative that’s truly shaping the future of transportation through intelligent autonomous mobility solutions,” said Bestmile CEO and cofounder Raphael Gindrat. “We applaud the commitment from the forward-thinking community of Lake Nona to deploy safe, modern and scalable mobility solutions.”

Each autonomous shuttle is equipped with interior and exterior cameras and uses effective guidance and detection systems while also optimizing navigation and safety features. The Beep command center can also communicate with the on-board shuttle attendant at any time. Though the shuttles are driverless, a Beep attendant will be on the shuttle at all times during operation to ensure riders have a pleasant and safe experience. In May of this year, Beep and NAVYA hosted a first-of-its-kind training for nearly 100 emergency personnel from both Orange County and City of Orlando fire rescue, EMT, and police departments. The training taught the attendees how to interact with the vehicle in emergency situations and included a hands-on session on how to drive the vehicle manually if needed.

For more information, please click here.

About Lake Nona
Located in Orlando, Fla., Lake Nona is one of the fastest-growing master-planned communities in America developed by Tavistock Development Company. Known for thoughtfully-designed neighborhoods, top-rated education facilities, business and research clusters, retail and entertainment centers, and diverse work spaces, Lake Nona encompass the best Central Florida has to offer. Lake Nona sets the foundation for a collaborative relationship between the people who live, work, and visit there by prioritizing forward-thinking technology, strategic partnerships, education, and wellbeing. For more information, visit http://www.lakenona.com.    

About Beep
Beep is an autonomous mobility solution company delivering the next generation of services for passenger mobility to fleet operators in planned communities and low speed environments across the public and private sector, including transportation hubs, medical and university campuses, town centers and more. From route planning to interactive managed services, Beep’s offerings are designed to drive differentiation and innovation, and delight the passengers of our customers. For more information visit http://www.go-beep.com

About NAVYA
NAVYA is a leading French name in the autonomous driving systems. With more than 290 employees in France (Paris and Lyon) and in the United States (Michigan), NAVYA aims at becoming the leading player for the supply of autonomous driving systems for passenger and goods transport. Since 2015, NAVYA has been the first to market and put into service autonomous mobility solutions. The AUTONOM® SHUTTLE, main development axis, was launched in September 2015 and more than 130 units have been sold as of 30 June 2019, notably in the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Australia. The AUTONOM® TRACT, whose first road tests will start shortly, is dedicated to goods transport. Created in 2014 with the support of Robolution Capital, investment fund managed by 360 Capital Partners, his reference shareholder, NAVYA’s shareholders also include the Gravitation fund and Paris Region Venture Fund (Région Île-de-France) managed by Cap Decisif Management as well as Valeo and Keolis groups.

NAVYA is listed on the Euronext regulated market in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013018041- NAVYA). For more information visit http://www.navya.tech/en

DANIA BEACH, FLA. - Q Link continues an aggressive pricing roll-out for its prepaid cell phone service, Hello Mobile, by offering free international calling with all of its plans. The unlimited talk plans are available to all customers and cover free calling to over 60 countries around the globe. With unlimited talk and free international calling, Hello Mobile anticipates its plans will be particularly attractive to non-native customers whose family members still live in their home country.

“There are lots of apps out there that let people make international calls without using their cell phone’s talk time; however, you have to be connected to a WiFi signal to use these apps. Our free international calling does not rely on a WiFi signal. You can call from the car, the beach, wherever,” said Issa Asad, founder and CEO of Hello Mobile. “This makes our service extremely valuable to consumers who need to connect with their friends and families back home and need a reliable solution that works without depending on WiFi.”

While prepaid plans have become more popular in general, they are particularly useful for customers who do not have established credit. Newly arrived residents from other countries, including those visiting the U.S., those emigrating from their native country, and even asylum seekers, rarely have the necessary credit to qualify for a conventional wireless plan offered by the nation’s “big four” legacy carriers. Facing these limitations, Hello Mobile’s free international calling has unique, vital importance for this segment of the prepaid market.

“I was lucky to be born in this country and build a credit history like most Americans,” said Q Link’s Issa Asad. “My parents weren’t as lucky. They came to this country without any money, and certainly without credit. So I understand the challenges immigrants face today, and I’m proud that Hello Mobile can alleviate at least a bit of their financial stress by offering free international calling.”

In addition to no-cost calls to other countries, Hello Mobile’s low rates compete head-to-head with rival prepaid giants like Mint Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile. In fact, Hello Mobile’s customers can get 1GB data as well as unlimited talk, text, and international calling for just $10 per month. Customers can choose to bring their own phone or purchase one through the company. In addition, users can port their existing numbers to Hello Mobile when they sign up.

Hello Mobile is also currently offering a special “buy your first month, get the second month free” for new customers. Plans start at $10 per month, and free international calling does not expire at any time.

To sign up for Hello Mobile’s services, visit HelloMobile.com. For more information, or to schedule an interview with Issa Asad, please contact Meieli Sawyer at 305-668-0070 or msawyer@weinbachgroup.com.

About Hello Mobile

Hello Mobile, a Quadrant Holdings Company, provides data and voice service to customers throughout the U.S. through its low-cost, prepaid mobile phone plans. The company is headquartered in Dania Beach, is recognized as one of the “Inc. 5000,” and earned an “A” rating from the Better Business Bureau.

NEW YORK, NY - A New York based Yellow Pages company has announced it is re-branding itself as YellowPagesDirectory.com. An innovator in Yellow Pages listings, the website, which began as InteractiveCities.com in 2006, hosts over 27,000,000 business listings and over 280,000,000 residential White Pages listings in the United States.

The service originally re-branded itself YellowPagesGoesGreen.org in 2010 when the business took a significant turn towards an environmentally sound mission pushing hard for the total elimination of print phone books. Together with online petition site PaperlessPetition.org, the two urged for an environmentally sound solution for consumers to opt-out of print phone book delivery gathering thousands of signatures which were then forwarded on to phone book companies. The service was the only one of its kind and attracted tremendous response from consumers looking to opt-out creating an undeniable and needed response from phone companies.

For years, YellowPagesGoesGreen.org continued to work with municipalities and local governments around the country to establish ordinances to mandate Yellow Pages and White Pages only be delivered to home and offices that ask for them. As a result, in 2010, the city of Seattle passed the first ordinance requiring phone-book companies to let residents opt out of getting the yellow pages and assigned the companies penalties for each unwanted book delivered.

The law was the first of its kind and was fought by the Local Search Association, an organization representing Yellow Pages publishers with the organization winning the case and striking down the law, however, the growing awareness of the case and its purpose did ‘prompt’ or ‘persuade’ the Local Search Association to create the first opt-out mechanism now found online at www.yellowpagesoptout.com.

Today, with its mission firmly remaining in place, the business believes it is time to move forward with its new URL which has already been implemented and a new look and feel to be replaced in the coming weeks. After nine years of operations as the only true economically known ‘green’ Yellow Pages, the sites web address changed last month from yellowpagesgoesgreen.org to yellowpagesdirectory.com and its design was completely revamped.

"The key in an effective website service is online traffic and visibility. We hope these changes will make our site so much better and easier to navigate. We continue to be one of the lowest cost yellow pages solution in America and our goal to improve our client’s businesses and website visibility will remain a top priority,” said CEO Michael Keegan.

Yellow Pages Directory Inc., owner of both YellowPagesGoesGreen.org and PaperlessPetition.org, offers an environmentally friendly Web-based alternative to paper telephone directories. Both YellowPagesGoesGreen.org and PaperlessPetition.org were instrumental in promoting opt-out awareness across the United States. 

NEW YORK - The rise of smartphones and the subsequent embracing of social media has gone a long way to changing how we as a society communicate with one another, and those changes, while positive in many ways, also come with a equal number of negative factors that are having a detrimental effect on our collective social wellness, according to experts.

Nowadays, people are communicating more than ever through social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a whole host of others. While this is a great thing in terms of staying in touch with people that you might ordinarily not be able to, experts are saying that in many ways, smartphones and social media have resulted in people having less connection with one another than ever before in many ways.

Previously, people would get together and have meaningful conversations where tone of voice, body language, and spontaneous replies would provide a truly cohesive and connecting experience between two or more people. Fast-forward to today, and social media apps have reduced that act to mere surface-level conversing, greatly reducing the quality of conversation overall. Things like empathy and establishing a connection tend to fall by the wayside when you're merely typing in a quick sentence on social media, clicking submit, and then forgetting about it until you eventually receive a notification of a reply.

In fact, it's this style of communication that has created a rampant sense of narcissism among social media users, who primarily use the apps to inform people about themselves and their daily happenings as opposed to being concerned with the affairs of others. This factor has been described by experts as someone essentially shouting “look at me! Look at me!” over and over into a void. It’s this type of behavior that has proven that, while social media does have its distinct benefits, overall social wellness is being compromised and undermined as a result.

Experts have noted that this can be especially detrimental for college and university students, who should be taking advantage of being on a large and diverse campus by establishing relationships and learning from people from different walks of life. Instead, reports say, individuals note that social media use usually leads to fewer interactions and an overall less enriching experience. In addition, losing the face-to-face aspect of conversing with someone has been found to greatly reduce interpersonal skills that are vitally needed when a student graduates from college and goes on into the workforce, where they will have no choice then but to have to deal with people directly.

Of course, smartphones can even get in the way when you are engaging with someone face-to-face. Studies have shown that when lulls in the conversation occur, instead of finding something new to talk about or simply feeling comfortable enough with the company you're in to not mind an occasional bout of silence, many people will pull out their phones instead as a source of distraction or as an artificial means of engagement.

After all, in today's world of digital instant gratification – where information, videos, and entertainment are merely a button press away at all times – any dip in a conversation might make today's attention deficit disorder-afflicted population uncomfortable. However, people would benefit to leave the cell phones behind when meeting up with friends, and using any lull in the conversation to think, reflect, and then return to the conversation with intention and a renewed and different perspective, resulting in a stronger connection with the people you are with.

Reports also indicate that more and more people are feeling depressed and anxious nowadays, and a lot of experts attribute that to the rise and increase in cell phone use. Yes, you may have a lot of followers on Instagram and have a lot of back and forth, one-sentence conversations with these people, but ultimately, deep down, these people know that these are merely superficial relationships and at the end of the day, these relationships are not fueling ones innate desire to belong and have true connections. Putting the cell phone aside here and there and engaging in real world, face-to-face activity with others would not only strengthen the bonds between friends, but also enhance these relationships – and your own personal sense of self-worth – in a more meaningful way.

Smartphones and social media are here to stay, and when used within the correct context in one's life, they can certainly be informative and enriching experiences. However, as a society, we need to learn to be more selective regarding how and when we use them, and more importantly, when NOT to use them. After all, no experience on your cell phone is going to compare to having its real-life equivalent with somebody who you truly have a strong and distinct connection with, will it?

NEW YORK - As technology continues its rapid evolution and growth on a near daily basis, we have found ourselves having to do less and less outside of the digital world when it comes to everyday tasks. One by one, things we used to have to do manually can now be done on a computer, or even more conveniently, from the palm of our hand via any recently-designed smartphone.

One of the things this new era of technology has deemed the most obsolete is that clunky old contraption known as the print phone directory. The mainstay of American households for over a century, in recent years phone-books have taken on a smaller and smaller role in our lives, to the point where their detriment to society has clearly outweighed their usefulness. Aside from being hopelessly out-of-date shortly after publication, there are a number of environmental factors to consider in both their creation and destruction after their admittedly short but useful life has concluded.
That said, here's a handy list of a number of activities that you may or may not have realized have fallen by the wayside in our new-and-improved digital age. While most of these changes represent a new era of convenience and efficiency, one could argue that some of them may actually represent steps backwards in our evolutionary cycle. It's up to you to be the judge.

In addition to many phone-book-related items, this list also includes other daily, all-too-common activities that are falling by the wayside as technology marches on. Some might read this list and grow a little nostalgic for the way things were, while others may appreciate the many advantages of technology today all the more.

1) Memorizing phone numbers

In the olden days – the olden days being the 80s and early 90s – people actually had to memorize phone numbers of their friends and loved ones, or short of that, at least carry around a small, hand-written phone book to keep those numbers within reach when they were needed. But nowadays, every cell phone has a dedicated contacts directory, and you can call anyone you know by voicing a command. That said, most people nowadays would probably have trouble telling you the phone number of their own mother or girlfriend, let alone the numbers of people they have far less contact with. While it is certainly convenient to be able to do this, one could argue that the less we use the brains, the worse off we are as a species.

2) Using a phone book to find a company to do work at your house

Modern generations, such as Generation Z and Millennials, probably don't even know what a Yellow Pages phone book is. More often than not, they regularly turn to digital alternatives, as well as websites such as Angie's List and Yelp in order to find services they need when it comes to doing work on their home. Those aforementioned websites make it easy to read user reviews and ratings before deciding to contact a given company to ensure that you're getting the best quality for your money. Today, few, if anyone at all cracks open a print Yellow Pages directory. it's straight to the internet.

3) Figuring out math in your head

This is another category that goes hand-in-hand with memorizing phone numbers. Back in the day, people used to have to add, subtract, multiply, and more within the recesses of their very own brains. Not today. In addition to the plethora of other technologies available in your smartphone, the most basic of apps they all come with is a calculator. That's right, no one has to know how to count or do any other type of mathematical activity on their own any more, and once again one has to argue if that is or is not a good thing for us as a society. With every advance in technology, there are always pluses and minuses.

4) Telling time by using the hands on a clock

Analog clocks are nearly a thing of the past. People with smartphones are buying things like wall clocks and watches and smaller and smaller numbers, mainly using them as fashion statements or – with the advent of devices such as Fitbit – wrist-worn fitness trackers. Pretty soon we won’t be seeing clocks with hands at all anymore, as a growing segment of the population wouldn't even know what they were if they saw them.

5) Having a record or CD collection

I used to have a pretty big music CD collection. Now my collection is comprised of just a couple of favorites that I couldn't bear to part with; the rest were sold to the used CD store across town. That is, I sold them after I ripped all of them to my iTunes library. Nowadays, people are using their cell phones storing their entire music collections which can be instantly retrieved and listened to at will not only through a headphone jack, but thanks to Bluetooth technology, on a number of high-end digital speakers as well, making the smartphone a truly all-in-one experience when it comes to your daily activities. With more and more storage available on even base models, you can load up your phone with a nearly endless sea of MP3 files and enjoy listening to every song you have at anytime you want. That's a lot better than having to pick out just a handful of CDs to stick in your bag for a car trip or train ride like we used to do.

6) Printing your favorite photos and making a photo album

Here's another thing that's falling by the wayside. Remember going on a trip, taking all sorts of snapshots, and then going to your local pharmacy to have all those pictures developed so you could pick out the best ones to include in a physical photo album? Those days have come and gone; again, cell phone cameras are approaching – and in many cases exceeding – the quality of many high-end point-and-shoot digital cameras, and fewer and fewer people are actually bothering to print their shots out. Instead, they are content to leave them on their phones, which serve as massive portable digital photo albums for most people these days.

7) Looking up theater or movie times through the newspaper

Remember having to look up the phone number of your local theater in your Yellow Page directory? And after doing so, calling your theater and having to listen to an endless recording of the different movies and showtimes for that day? If you don't, perhaps it's for the best...it wasn't a very fun thing to do. But again, with the magic of smartphones, you can just simply type – or even speak – the name of any movie you're interested in seeing and your phone will provide a list of movie theaters and showtimes based on your GPS positioning. You can even purchase your tickets on your phone and have them texted or emailed to you, enabling you to skip the line at the cinema.

8) Running to the store for a last minute gift

I think just about everybody today is familiar with websites such as Amazon and their Prime program which offers free 2-day shipping – soon to become free 1-day shipping – which is perfect if you suddenly remembered your mother's birthday at the end of the week and are too busy to run out to the store and search endlessly for just the right gift. Instead, eCommerce sites offer a plethora of items at your fingertips with a variety of fast shipping options to take advantage of. No more pulling out phone books to find where stores are, or braving crowded malls and check-out lanes...instead, a few button-presses on your phone and your package will be well on its way to you. Granted, this sort of activity is shuttering a lot of local retail businesses, so you might want to think twice about doing this if you want to help support your own community. But sometimes time is a factor, and it's nice to have this option available when you need it.

9) Mailing a handwritten letter to someone

Nowadays a hand-written letter is simply a novelty and little more. With email, texting, Facebook, and a plethora of other options for staying in touch with people on a daily basis, letter-writing is seen by many as a thing of the past. It still is nice though when you want to add that personal touch to someone you are especially fond of, but otherwise it just doesn't happen much anymore.

10) Using a dictionary to see how to spell a word

With practically every program on your phone possessing a spell-checker of some sort, apparently people don't need to know how to spell anymore, either. Again, this goes hand-in-hand with knowing how to add, multiply or remember phone numbers. Like those other issues, this could certainly be seen as a negative, but there are times when you just wouldn't know how to spell a given word and it's nice to know that technology can help you from looking like a complete illiterate when it counts.

11) Making a phone call from a phone booth

I'm writing this article, and even I barely remember what a phone booth looks like. It's likely that anyone born from the early 1990’s on would even have any idea what a phone booth was, let alone what it looks like. That's probably not a bad thing.

12) Carrying cash

It seems more people nowadays are using credit and debit cards to pay for things than actual cash, but cash is still king...at least, for now. There are more and more apps arriving on phones – such as Google Play and others – that are making even carrying around plastic obsolete, let alone paper. But while any form of payment still works these days, you're going to see that currency is going digital sooner rather than later.

As you can see, smartphones add a great deal of convenience to our lives, and while some may argue that they also can be a detriment when it comes to our personal growth and evolution – after all, it's good to know how to count, spell and memorize things – cell phones nonetheless have become a part of daily life that few people can do without. This instance, I'd say the positives outweigh the negatives. At least, that is, for now.

NEW YORK - Yellow Pages United, an advertising company that has been registered with the Florida Department of State and since 2011 has operated a nationwide online “yellow pages” business, has had a lawsuit filed against them by the Florida state attorney general’s office, citing violations of the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, according to reports.

The Attorney General's office alleges that Yellow Pages United has been deceiving consumers nationwide into paying a fee of approximately $800 annually for a listing in an "obscure, little-used online telephone directory," one that automatically renews every single year. Since beginning this practice in 2001, the AG's office says, Yellow Pages United has received numerous complaints – totaling at nearly 1,900 – that have been submitted not only to the Attorney General's office, but also the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau, and numerous other agencies, both Federal and local. The majority of the complaints range from issues with Yellow pages United's marketing, billing, and collection practices, according to the lawsuit.

Allegedly, Yellow Pages United acquired the names and addresses of numerous consumers from public records and other sources, after which they sent them marketing materials for their business directory listings via unsolicited direct mail solicitations. Consumers are then hoodwinked and pressured, using a variety of deceptive in misleading tactics, to fill out the solicitations and return them to Yellow Pages United, after which they would be sent fraudulent invoices that they would be instructed to pay via credit card or check, according to the AG's office.

Yellow Pages United puts up a legitimate front by using the common and diluted term “Yellow Pages” and featuring the well-known yet [un-trademark-able] “walking fingers” logo in an 'attempt', the AG’s offices alleges, to make themselves appear as actual representatives of the “real” Yellow Pages. However, instead of their directory listings appearing in a legitimate Yellow Pages directory, Yellow Pages United were actually posting the businesses directory listing on their own obscure site and billing victims approximately $800 annually for that service, or lack thereof. If a customer refused to pay Yellow Pages United for their listing once they opted in, aggressive collection procedures were then used in order to bully the victims into paying, according to the AG's office.

The lawsuit brought about by the Florida Attorney General seeks to stop Yellow Pages United from perpetrating their alleged deceptive practices, and to render all contracts the company has with consumers null and void. In addition, the AG is demanding that Yellow Pages United repay its victims restitution for any fees fraudulently collected on previous occasions. The suit also seeks civil penalties against in the amount of $10,000 for each victim of their alleged deceptive practices; that amount goes up to $15,000 in any instance in which a senior citizen, disabled person, or US military member was a victim, according to reports.

NEW YORK - The communications ministry of Japan has reacted to fears that the country will run out of 11-digit telephone numbers by 2022 by approving the creation of 10 billion 14-digit phone numbers, a move that has already been approved by the county’s three major mobile device carriers. The new numbers, according to reports, should be introduced by the end of 2021. 

A number of factors, including the impending roll-out of Japan's new 5G Network in 2020, has attributed to an increase in devices with connectivity that will require a slew of new phone numbers. The rapid adoption of “Internet of Things” devices, which require their own contact phone numbers in Japan, has done a great deal to exhaust the country supply of 11-digit phone numbers in the country. 

The new phone numbers, which start with the prefix “020,” were introduced initially at the start of 2017 to exclusively accommodate Internet of Things devices. 80 million “020” numbers have been assigned to Internet of Things devices as of the end of March 2019, but with the impending exhaustion of the current 11-digit telephone number system in Japan, officials have created 10 billion more “020” numbers with the intention that they would now be spread between both Internet of Things devices and traditional phone numbers.

The Internet of Things is the extension of internet connectivity into physical devices and everyday objects. Embedded with electronics, internet connectivity, and other forms of hardware, these devices can communicate and interact with other devices over the internet, and they can be remotely monitored and controlled. Typically, the technology is most synonymous with the concept of the “smart home,” covering devices and items such as lighting fixtures, thermostats, home security systems, cameras, and other home appliances that can be controlled via devices such as smartphones and smart speakers, such as Amazon's Alexa device.

Currently, the 11-digit phone number system in Japan supports prefixes beginning with “080,” “090,” and “070,” but the country, ever at the forefront of technological innovation, has been one of the leading embracers of Internet of Things devices and smartphone tech in general. With that being the case, the fact that the island nation is rapidly exhausting its supply of phone numbers is hardly surprising.

In fact, Japan is not the only country facing the issue of needing more phone numbers as technology becomes more prevalent in everyday life. In the United Kingdom, for example, in 2014 callers in certain areas had to start including a 5-digit area code prefix whenever they made a call – even if it was local – after the pool of existing phone numbers began to run out. However, as the country moves more towards IP-based telephone networks, the UK's national telecom regulator has begun mulling over the possibility of dropping area codes entirely.

As Internet of Things devices began interfacing more and more in terms of connectivity with smartphone devices, more and more phone numbers have been required to meet the needs of this technological union. In fact, by the end of 2020, experts estimate that there will be at least 50 billion linked devices worldwide, with the global Internet of Things market value projected to reach $7.1 trillion.

Defining the Internet of Things as "simply the point in time when more 'things or objects' were connected to the Internet than people", Cisco Systems estimated that the concept was "born" between 2008 and 2009, with the things/people ratio growing from 0.08 in 2003 to 1.84 in 2010.

The concept of a network of smart devices, however, is not brand-new; the idea was discussed as early as 1982, with a modified Coke vending machine at Carnegie Mellon University becoming the first Internet-connected appliance, able to report its inventory and whether newly loaded drinks were cold or not. Today, a growing portion of Internet of Things devices are created for consumer use, including connected vehicles, home automation, and wearable technology, such as the popular FitBit activity tracker.

NEW YORK - Despite the efforts of time, technology, and progress to finally do away with them, the Yellow Pages may be making a comeback, albeit in a very different – and complicated – form; a digital one that could connect participating companies in a truly revolutionary way utilizing an emerging technology initially created to govern the use of so-called cryptocurrency that has now expanded to become much more.

A project known as the “Unbounded Registry,” which boasts the involvement of several high-profile companies including IBM, has been working on a platform that could be best described as a “catalog” comprised of “blockchains” and blockchain-based businesses.

Blockchain was invented by a person – or possibly a group of people – under the name “Satoshi Nakamoto” in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency known as bitcoin. However, in recent years, blockchain use has expanded to other areas of business.
This may sound complicated, but essentially a blockchain is a growing list of records – called “blocks” – which are linked using cryptography; this is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties. Each “block” contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data, and for use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol that handles communication and validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires consensus of the network majority.

While this may not sound like an effective means to construct a business directory in an environment that would require some degree of flexibility, the project has stated that the way they're constructing their catalog would allow users to interact and transact in a way that would allow them to grow and change as needed. The project is said to interoperate with all of today's popular distributed ledger technologies, with the project being characterized as the “Yellow Pages of the Blockchain.”

Unlike typical Yellow Page directories, this particular project will require members to apply to join the registry due to the heavy permissions involved; non-members will not have access due the sensitive information being brandied about between users. For companies and organizations that are members, however, the advantages when to comes to communicating and conducting business are said to be numerous.

It is currently not known the specific criteria required for becoming part of the catalog, the specific types of blockchains that will be allowed, or how a given blockchain can incorporate itself into the catalog, but if this is to be a comprehensive project it would obviously make sense that it would allow as many blockchains – and companies, of course – as possible to join.

The blockchain catalog, if it comes to fruition, would centrally allow all participants to interact and collaborate digitally, establishing a shared, immutable record of all transactions, addresses, contact information, and more, all in real-time. Records can be easily digitized and exchanged and will be backed by a secure system with strict import and export clearance. Think of it as a “Super Yellow Pages” that would allow participating companies to not only identify purveyors of goods and services that they need, but also allow participants to share information as goods move through supply chains. And as this will all be done within a digital context, the process will go a long way towards reducing the cost of paperwork as well, which many companies note is one of the costliest aspects of conducting business in many ways.

The only drawback that may prevent some companies from wanting to get involved in this endeavor is the fact that all participants would have to share their data on common platforms. This transparency, while very advantageous and desirable in many ways, could also drive off entities and organizations who wish to keep the details of certain transactions under wraps; a very understandable concern in today’s cutthroat business world.

Time will only tell if this intriguing – and complicated – blockchain version of the Yellow Pages will bear fruit, or fade away into obscurity if it is not refined and adopted by the business community as a whole.

NEW YORK - In life, there are few things more disconcerting and isolating than homelessness. Often, these people are the victims of a wide range of maladies – including job loss and mental illness – but whatever the cause for their situation, once they've embraced a life on the streets it can be quite difficult for the people who care most about them to track them down and offer a helping hand.

However, there is a new organization that is helping to track down the families of people residing at homeless shelters in an effort to help them get their lives back on track. Miracle Messages is a non-profit “reunion service” that helps people experiencing homelessness reunite with their loved ones in a positive and supportive way. Often, volunteers of this organization will visit homeless shelters and get to know some of the regular inhabitants. Sometimes these people can be difficult to communicate with, making it difficult to extrapolate any information from them that can be used to track down their families. But with proper training and a “can-do” attitude, the volunteer can take a few scraps of information – utilized in conjunction with an online White Pages directory – and cultivate very real connections to an individual's past.

Of course, a reunion may not be desired on one end or the other – or both, for that matter – but the goal of groups like Miracle Messages is to simply provide a way to open a channel of communication without mandating that a party on either end actually makes use of it. 

Miracle Messages relays the story of a man named Timothy, who was living at one point recently at a homeless shelter in San Francisco known as Saint Anthony's. A volunteer took a family phone number that he had – a phone number that was actually incorrect – and used that along with whatever information Timothy could recall about his family and where he lived, and used that to discover a White Pages listing for the man's sister. The volunteer wrote a letter, and heard back from Timothy's family within a week. In less than a month, Timothy had boarded a bus set for his home back east and a reunion with his loved ones; it turns out that Timothy's family had been searching for him for quite some time, but due to whatever issues he was experiencing, they were unable to locate him. It's amazing what a little detective work – combined with a White Pages directory – can accomplish.

The United States currently has over 500,000 homeless people within its borders; all of those people have their own individual stories of how they came to their current state. But the one thing they almost all have in common is a deep sense of loneliness, which is a condition that is only exasperated by having to rely on the charity of others in order to eke out an existence on this planet. What many of these people need, more than anything else, is help getting in touch with the people that love and care for them, and thankfully there are now options out there for achieving that. 

Reuniting a homeless person with their family can provide numerous benefits; aside from having a roof over their head, of course, it offers them a more positive outlook on life, as well as people who can advocate for them if they are experiencing any mental or physical health-related issues.

Miracle Messages and similar organizations are part of a growing movement to help do away with homelessness in our country, having reconnected hundreds of people with their families to date. In addition to helping individuals, this also serves practical purposes for society, as the average undomiciled person typically cost taxpayers, on average, over $35,000 a year in public assistance. In addition, most governmental aid systems place a priority on assisting families and women; someone like Timothy could have found himself lost in the system for years before getting the assistance he needed, if ever.

Of course, there are other digital avenues the volunteers can use to reunite people who have been separated from their families, aside from the White Pages; Facebook is an effective means of doing so, according to Miracle Messages. Another case in California involved a man named Jeffrey who hadn't seeing his family members in 22 years. A volunteer, after getting to know Jeffrey, recorded a video of him on their phone and posted it to Facebook; there it went viral, and within less than 30 minutes Jeffrey’s sister was tagged and soon afterwards, the family was reunited.
When it comes to helping out helping to wipe out the scourge of homelessness in our country once and for all, it doesn't take much; just a little compassion, detective work, and access to a digital phone directory or social media site. From there, it's just a matter of setting up an avenue of communication and waiting to see if the parties involved will take it.

NEW YORK - Spam phone calls have become a way of life for many Americans; according to reports, in 2018 alone US citizens received a staggering total of 26.3 billion unsolicited phone calls – both legitimate and illegitimate – from various groups, organizations, and individuals. Shockingly, that number is 80 times greater than the entire population of our country, and the problem has become so severe that the Federal Communications and Trade Commissions reported spam calls as the number one consumer complaint they receive on an annual basis.

Washington state, home of e-commerce giant Amazon, reports that its residents have received over 200,000,000 spam calls in the first quarter of 2019; this represents a nearly 55 percent increase from the same period of time in 2018. The irony of this occurring in Amazon's backyard is that the retail company is now the subject of a new con that phone scammers are perpetrating, as widely reported by Washington consumers this year.

The new Amazon scam is simple yet effective, the hallmark of any successful scheme that seeks to separate hard working people from their money. People pretending to be customer service agents are contacting Amazon customers and reporting that they are the victim of potentially fraudulent login activity on their accounts. The solution they offer is to assist them in resetting their accounts by directing them to a made-up website where the customers are then prompted to enter their Amazon login information. This, of course, gives the con artist free and open access to the victim’s Amazon account and any personal information stored within; this can run from addresses and phone numbers to credit card numbers and bank account details, all of which can be used to turn an unsuspecting victim’s life into a financial shambles.

Unfortunately, Washington State seems to be the epicenter of technology-related cons and rackets that involve unscrupulous individuals representing themselves as organizations and entities in order to fulfill some horrific get-rich-quick scheme at the expense of others. For example, customers of Seattle City Light have been recently receiving phone calls from individuals claiming to be representatives of the utility company, who “threaten” to have the customer’s power shut off unless they immediately submit a payment to a “private” account. Obviously, that payment is not going to Seattle City Light, but instead into the coffers of a scammer. This goes along with all the usual scam phone calls that people have to contend with these days, such as people masquerading as IRS or Social Security agents, which are some of the most ubiquitous scams going at the moment.
Of course, Washington State isn't the lone victim; scam phone calls are a nationwide menace, with the Amazon ruse spreading out across the country; reports of the scam care now coming in from cities all the way to the eastern seaboard, shockingly.

These phone scams are providing massive problems for companies and local governments, with lawmakers scrambling to develop legislation that will catch up with technology and address these issues, as well as businesses curtailing their outreach to customers for fear of being mistaken as scammers themselves. The Federal Communications Commission plans on rolling out a series of new regulations – backed by heavy fines – in order to address the issue, and Congress is mulling over bills that would require telecom companies to adopt new and strict authentication protocols in order to help provide a relief to consumers from the never-ending series of spam calls they have to endure on a near-daily basis.

But in the meantime, your most important tool against phone spammers is merely common sense. It's rare that any company or government organization to contact you via the telephone about money owned or an alleged security breach. If you ever receive a phone call from out of the blue from anyone claiming to be any organization for whatever reason, a wise move is to always question it. Never agree to send anything to any individual who calls you – especially money or personal information – and instead hang up and contact the company they claim to have represented to confirm things for yourself. More often than not, you'll find that you were nearly the victim of a scammer; again, with a little common sense, you'll find that they aren’t that difficult to outwit after all.

NEW YORK - Instagram, a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, has come under fire recently as reports indicated that the social site had leaked the contact information of many of its users – including names, email addresses, and phone numbers – over a period of time that lasted at least four months.

According to data scientists, the contact information of some Instagram users was actually contained in the source code of their user profiles whenever loaded in an Internet browser, making it easy for unscrupulous individuals to access and gather it for a variety of purposes. Why such sensitive information was included in the source code for the website is anyone's guess, but it’s not considered a secure practice by any means.

Apparently the contact information for many Instagram users – but not the entirety of them – had been compromised by this issue, some of whom were minors, businesses, and known marketing brands. Hackers and scam artists would have the ability to acquire this information from any affected Instagram page, and in turn construct a database comprised of the contact details of a great number of Instagram members. 

Instagram released a statement regarding the issue, noting that the information that had been leaked was not considered private; it could be argued that the users who were compromised would not agree with this assessment of the situation, however, nor does the statement address why the contact information was actually contained in the source code.

"The contact information discovered in this case is not private contact information, but contact information a member of the Instagram community chose to share when converting their profile to a Business Profile," they said. "During the setup process for Business Profiles we display this information, remind people that it will be accessible to others, and allow them to update or remove the information."

According to reports, this sensitive data has already spread to various marketing companies, including one located in India that had allegedly acquired contact information of millions of Instagram users. Such use of their member’s information is against Instagram's terms of use, but it's readily apparent that any unscrupulous marketing company that is willing to engage in this type of behavior cares little for the terms of a website.

Reports indicate that phone numbers and email addresses have been contained in the Instagram source code of selected profiles for several months. The problem was reported to the Instagram tech support team in February of 2019, and was eventually rectified the following March.

In a day and age where personal information is becoming easier and easier for marketing types to find and exploit on the internet, programming and coding errors can only exasperate that problem. This is especially true when that information is relatively easy for hackers with even a rudimentary level of computer skill to obtain, such as the case with the Instagram source code. Another example of this problem involves Google, who recently admitted that it had been storing the passwords of some of their business customers as mere plain text, as opposed to an encrypted format. Practices such as these place the users of such websites at considerable risk for identity theft and fraud, and the companies involved owe it to their users to greatly enhance their security measures and to take greater care with the private information of their many millions of users.

Currently, user contact information is only available for outside viewers on Instagram if the user profile in question has selected the option for outside individuals to contact them through the website. While that is not ideal – as it still puts sensitive personal information out on the web – at least this is by choice and not through a programming and coding error that managed to slip through the cracks. And considering the fact that scraping data from a website is considered relatively easy according to experts, it's best not to give hackers and scammers and an even easier time of it than usual.

Criminals armed with a name, email address, or phone number can do untold damage, believe it or not. That information, combined with other identifying characteristics about you that could be mined from any number of web-based sources, could result in rampant identity theft that could tank your credit rating, leave you responsible for multiple expensive charges, and even more.

It's been said before, and again - in today's day and age of robust and frequent internet activity, it's best to sit back and rethink the information that you make publicly available on the web for all to see; unfortunately, most people don't tend to make this consideration until it is far too late. Just remember, if it's not something you would want a total stranger to know about yourself in real life, you probably shouldn't put it on the web, either.

NEW YORK - For small businesses today, scams are a major and growing problem, often perpetrated by unscrupulous individuals possessing delicate information and seeking to separate hard-working entrepreneurs from their money. However, the Better Business Bureau recently released a list of the most common scams targeting businesses today, something that is vital reading for pretty much anyone, whether they work for themselves or someone else.

Staying informed about the most common scams going around and getting familiar with the different techniques involved is the best defense for any small business owner not looking to become a victim, and when armed with the information provided by the Better Business Bureau, identifying these vile charlatans and avoiding them is now easier than ever.

Most scams nowadays involve people who have acquired a business’ publicly-available contact information and, with a bare minimum of research, will reach out to that company posing often as an authority figure or charitable institution while requesting money. Scams of this nature can really devastate a business if successful, and it's vitally important for any entrepreneur to be prepared when they become the target of a phone or email scammer.

Some of the most common small business scams include the following:

• Businesses receiving fraudulent invoices requesting payment for goods and services that were never provided. These individuals will often attempt to have the bookkeeper or other authorized payment representative wire or transfer large amounts of money to an unverified account. Typically, the amount of money requested begins as relatively small in an effort not to raise concerns; however, if the scam is successfully carried out, often more invoices will follow requesting greater amounts.
• Businesses should beware of people claiming to be representatives of a local print or online Yellow Page directory requesting to update their business listings. Often, the business is billed large amounts of money for fake listing services, including ads that they were led to believe would be displayed in their local Yellow Pages; of course, these ads will never materialize.
• Some scammers will actually contact consumers, claiming to be a legitimate, existing company in an attempt to rip them off in one way or another. While the actual company they are claiming to represent doesn't suffer financially in these types of situations, their reputation certainly does, as they are often associated with the scam in question, and are often held responsible.
• Other scammers will contact a company claiming to be representatives of a charitable group or institution while requesting donations for various causes. While many of these organizations are real, there is always the threat of con-men and charlatans mixed in who are looking to separate you from your hard-earned money. If you're unsure whether or not a charity that has contacted you is legitimate, it pays to reach out directly to the charity they're claiming to represent and confirm their identity before writing any checks.
• Phishing scams are more recent phenomenon that involves emails that appear on the surface to be legit, but often contain links that will download a virus to your computer when you click on them. These links will subsequently gather personal information located on your computer that can be used against you in a variety of ways. Of course, always make sure that any anti-virus and anti-phishing software on your computer is up to date, and if you receive an email from an unfamiliar source, always treat it with a very high level of scrutiny before interacting with it in any way.
• Some businesses will receive a contact from an organization about an award they have allegedly won, and are requested to pay a certain fee up-front before receiving the award. In addition to potentially paying for an award that doesn't even exist, a business may also find themselves paying phantom membership fees on an annual basis that they never agreed to if they supply credit card information. Much like when receiving requests for charitable donations, always do some detective work and confirm the legitimacy of any organization that offers you an award before accepting.
• And finally, there's the over-payment scam. This involves a fraudulent customer attempting to purchase goods or services from a given business; they will send a check that is greater than the amount that said goods or services will cost, and will then request a refund in the amount of the difference. However, the company will soon become aware of the scam when the original check eventually bounces, leaving them in the hole for the full amount.

Scammers are more plentiful than ever before thanks to the abundance of information available out in the wild combined with the anonymity provided by the Internet. Therefore, as a small business owner, it's vital for you to stay on top of what's happening and to use caution and common sense when dealing with anyone you don't know. It's hard enough getting a small business off the ground these days, but if you use your head – and stay on top of the latest scams – it'll make your job that much easier.

NEW YORK - Data brokers - companies that routinely buy and sell public, personal data obtained through various sources for the purpose of creating targeted ad campaigns - have for years been a secretive bunch. 21st century laws have not yet caught up with this practice, and as a result it's not often known who these companies are, or what it is exactly that they do with the disturbing level of personal information they cull from countless public sources.

However, one state is finally making a stand for consumers' rights. Vermont has recently passed a law that requires companies to register with their Secretary of State if they conduct in the buying and selling of third-party personal data. This law represents the first time any state has attempted to assign some degree of culpability to an industry that largely operates under the radar and without rules.

However, some critics are complaining that the law, while opening up these companies to some degree of public scrutiny, nonetheless does not provide the level of transparency that some people wish. While data brokers do have to register with Vermont Secretary of State – publicly identifying themselves as data brokers – they however do not have to reveal the individuals in their databases, the specific types of data they collect, or who they sell it to. Likewise, data brokers are not required to offer opt-out procedures for members of the public who wish not to have their personal information harvested for advertising purposes. However, if they choose to provide opt-out procedures of their own volition, they are required to provide public information regarding it. But seriously, what company in this unscrupulous field would really feel the need to offer an opt-out procedure voluntarily, without any law dictating that they do so?

Today, the Vermont data broker database is comprised of 121 different companies that run the gamut from organizations that assist landlords in doing background checks on potential tenants and analyzing marketing leads for insurance companies to assisting numerous credit reporting and background check agencies as well as companies deeply embedded in the advertising and marketing Industries. 

But the Vermont law only applies to third-party data firms – independent companies that gather information to sell to other, larger companies – and as a result, these 121 companies are merely the tip of the iceberg. So-called first-party data holders – representing large retail and tech firms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and the like – also harvest their own share of personal data as well, which is then converted and fed into their own marketing and advertising practices.

Data harvesting can happen in a number of different ways; information available and any standard White Pages search – such as name, phone number, address, age, and more – are often cannibalized by data brokers, who will plunder any and every public record they can get their hands on. This allows them to assemble digital profiles chronicling the attributes of millions – even billions – of different people, and that information is a valuable commodity that they will then sell to any number of companies for a variety of purposes. If you've ever registered with website or to vote, or used a smartphone app, or purchase something online, you've most likely supplied data brokers with a wide portrait of information regarding your likes, dislikes, voting history, and general behavior that can then can be used to tailor advertising campaign specifically for you and your interests.

For example, in 2017 one data broker was noted to have provided approximately 3000 separate, identifiable attributes on 700 million people in the United States, in 2018, the number of attributes ballooned to 10,000, spread out amongst 2.5 billion people. Truly disturbing, and this reality has convinced Americans that they currently have little-or-no control over the degree of data that is being collected on them by unknown entities. According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, only 9 percent of Americans believe they have "great control" over the data that is collected on them. The vast majority of those polled, however, insisted that it should be very important for them to be in control of their data, including who can – or cannot – have access to it.

If this is an issue that concerns you – and by all rights, it certainly should – then you should make every effort to contact your local state representatives and pressure them to draft up a bill similar to the one passed in Vermont recently. In fact, you would even do well to encourage them to better that bill, by not only forcing data mining companies to identify themselves, but to also disclose who they're collecting data on, exactly what data they are collecting – and most importantly – what it is they're doing with that data once they have it. Holding data brokers accountable will certainly not be easy, but securing your own private, personal information is more than worth the time and effort in the end.

NEW YORK - In today's economic climate, starting your own small business can be a risky proposition; however, it can also be an immensely profitable one if you take the right steps to give your business the exposure it needs. Online reviews, a clever marketing campaign, an attractive and easy-to-use website, and numerous ads – both in print and online – can certainly get you attention. However, there's one thing many tend to overlook when establishing a new entrepreneurial endeavor, and that's getting the phone number for your business properly listed in order to achieve maximum exposure of your brand, and ensuring that your potential customers can easily reach out and touch you, as the old phone company jingle goes.

In the old days, someone would simply crack open a print Yellow Page directory when they were looking for goods and services in their area; however, this was before the Internet came along and changed things forever. In addition to online Yellow Pages directories, things have also changed drastically overall in the modern telecommunications industry. Where in the past, there were only one or two major phone companies, today the industry is decentralized and comprised of multiple carriers, and this means there are many, many different directories out there. Depending on the scope of your business and how far across the country it reaches, you need to ensure that your phone number is listed in every market applicable to you.

The general rule of thumb is that if a customer can't find you, then it's not possible for you to serve them. You need to give your business the most exposure by making sure your phone number is available to potential customers in multiple markets and venues. Thankfully, if you know what you're doing, this is a generally easy and low-cost – often free – process, when done in its most basic form.

Shockingly, in this day and age, there are still individuals who turn to the print phone book when they need to look up a business, so even though it's something you may generally overlook, it still is worth your while to make sure your business is listed there. Most often your listing would be included for no extra charge when you sign up for a landline for your business, but if you're actually using your home phone number instead be prepared to be woken up at all hours. Also, bear in mind that your listing will be appearing instead in the White Pages – not the Yellow Pages – which will make it more difficult for potential customers to track you down. In addition, home landline numbers are often the victims of spam calls more often than business numbers; with this being the case, it only makes sense for someone starting a business to invest in a business phone line. Again, this typically includes an automatic listing and your carrier’s local Yellow Pages – both print and online – so it makes sense.

However, when it comes to getting your business phone number out there, online directories are really the way to go. After all, telephone books generally come out annually – or bi-annually at best – and as a result, much of the content within its pages becomes obsolete quickly. With this being the case, if any of your contact information has changed, no one that uses print directories is going to know it for at least six months to a year. Meanwhile, online directories are typically updated every day – or multiple times a day – which ensures that consumers always have access to the most up-to-date information.

Making sure you're located in all of your local online directories is important as well, as often consumers will search local zip codes in order to find businesses either local to their home or nearby places they're planning on being in the near future. With a paper phone book, they would have to go through page after page in order to find a business that suits their location; with online sources, it's simply a matter of typing in your ZIP code. So again, making sure that your business is listed in as many online directories as possible is essential, and typically free as well.

Google My Business, for example, allows you to create a listing for your company, including your phone number, address, and any other information pertinent to your customers. Google is the world's number one search engine, so it's very important to get your business listed there, and to ensure that the information you put in is correct.

However, while Google may be number one for the foreseeable future, it's not the only place you should list your business. For free, you can also add your business to Yelp for Business, Bing Places, Facebook, Yellow Pages Goes Green (of course), and several others. Once you have your information imputed it into these sites, you'll have yourself thoroughly out there for any customers looking to potentially engage your services. To see how your listing appears you can use this tool to scan your listing across multiple sites at once and look for errors.

Again, having a business phone line is the most effective, but nonetheless there are still those out there who choose to use a private line, and others still will actually use their cell numbers for their business. This option can certainly complicate matters for you, mainly because of the fact that many telephone service providers don't make cell numbers available to directory assistance. Cell phone numbers are not listed in public directories by default, but it is possible to use websites such as Express Update or List Yourself, which allow you to add your business information – including a cell phone number – to a number of directory assistance providers and publishers in the country.

Any new business owner looking to get an edge in a crowded and very competitive market will take every advantage they can to possibly gain an advantage, and while a snazzy advertising campaign or bright and inviting sign above your shop may get some foot traffic in the door, making sure you have your listings in order – especially in regards to your business phone number – can go a long way to spelling success for your endeavor.

NEW YORK - Frontier Communications, a publishing company that supplies print telephone directories to customers in Rochester, New York and beyond, has recently and curiously reversed a decision it made regarding curtailing the mass delivery of their Yellow Pages business listings book, instead opting to continue supplying it to residents in their area despite their fading demand and greater reliance upon digital options.

In early 2019, Frontier had approached the New York State Service Commission and asked for permission to end the mass delivery of Yellow Page directories to its customers, arguing that interest in print directories had decreased greatly in favor of reliance upon electronic directory options. Citing the fact that the vast majority of consumers simply throw the Yellow Page directories they find on their doorsteps in the trash or recycling bin, Frontier also pointed out that the creation and disposal of their directories had a detrimental impact upon the environment. Based on their pervasive arguments, Frontier was given approval to end mass delivery of their Yellow Page directories; delivery would only be made to customers who had personally requested a copy, Frontier said.

Frontier had also ended the delivery of their residential White Pages directories five years ago, a decision they have completely adhered to.
However, Frontier recently reversed themselves in regards to their Yellow Page directories, stating that they had no intentions of ending it anytime soon. This, according to reports, is possibly due to the fact that the vast amount of business advertising contained on each page generates a great deal of revenue for Frontier. With their most recent directory coming in at 900 pages, that's a lot of potential revenue that they’d be giving up.

It remains to be argued how visible those ads are, however; regardless of whether or not residents are actually having a print phone directory delivered, it is more than likely that the vast number of them that do never even crack them open once. Aside from some older segments of society, nowadays most people are far more likely to hop on their computer or whip out their smartphone if they need to find the phone number or address of a local plumber, restaurant, or retail store. But again, the aforementioned older segment of society often insists on hanging on to the way things were, and it seems that a majority of them made their voices heard. That, coupled with an advertising department that's clearly working overtime, are likely the reasons why Frontier decided to reverse their decision. But if you're one of their customers who no longer wanted to receive the book, fear not; you still have the option of opting out of delivery, either through Frontier’s website, or through any number of online alternatives....including right here, on Yellow Pages Goes Green.

However, the fact that Frontier filed to cease delivery the company sees the writing on the wall; namely, that the average consumer typically has little-to-no use for print phone directories, which have actually existed in one form or another for well over a century in the Rochester area. And as demand decreases for them, it's more likely that advertisers will abandon Frontier; it’s only a matter of time.

For the time being, Frontier is hanging on to a moneymaker for as long as they can. But in this day and age of widespread digital information – as well as an increased awareness of the environmental impact that the creation and disposal of print phone directories has – you can probably find yourself counting the seconds before Frontier does away with mass delivery of their Yellow Pages directory once and for all.

NEW YORK - Years ago, a well-known story made its way around the news media regarding a father who's teenage daughter had been receiving mail ads for maternity clothing and nursery furniture from mega-retailer Target. 

It turns out that, even in the early 2000s, national retail chains were using complex computer algorithms to determine products you may need based on previous purchases you have made. Based on the purchases this gentleman's daughter had made, Target's computers had made an assumption – and a correct one – that she was indeed pregnant and even approximately estimated her due date. Based on that information, it automatically generated advertising mailers and sent them to her address.

On one hand, this demonstrates an incredible degree of sophistication when it comes to the technology in use; in fact, some people may actually enjoy the convenience that these so-called “targeted ads” may afford them. Many others, however, consider this a gross and horrific violation of privacy. Targeted ads often make use of any information you may give to any given company, in addition to often utilizing any readily available, public information that may be floating around as well; particularly information commonly found in any White Page directory, such as name, address, phone number, and more.

Also, bear in mind that the story above took place well over a decade ago. Obviously, technology has improved by leaps and bounds since then, so it's only natural to wonder just what information a company can glean from your past buying history now, and how they can tailor their advertising campaigns to take advantage of it. Again, some might prefer receiving advertising with a personal touch –  geared towards the types of purchases they've made in the past – but many people often find these ads a little too creepy. More often than not, consumers have been wondering “how the heck did they find THAT out about me?” upon receiving one of these unsolicited advertisements.

It's similar to how “cookies” behave- those files in your browser that keep track of your browsing history and in turn, can generate ads based on websites you've previously visited. It's all part of the targeted ad phenomenon, and nowadays the average person is practically bombarded with them on a daily basis. And it turns out that a vast majority of Americans – well over 60 percent – have said in online polls that they are not happy with having their behavior online tracked, analyzed, and essentially used against them for the sake of selling products.

Those involved in the poll that did not mind receiving targeted ads noted that they enjoyed seeing advertisements for things they were interested in, as opposed to random fluff that they would immediately tune out. In addition, those who minded targeted ads the least were young people up to the age of 29, who noted that it was a useful way to get information about goods and services they were interested in. However, a growing percentage of youth are also worried that they are spending too much time on their smartphones, a surprising statistic since everywhere you go, that's exactly what you see- young people with their faces glued on their phones constantly.

There's no doubt that the internet and smartphones have certainly brought a great deal of convenience into our lives, but unfortunately with that convenience comes a general loss of privacy. Consumers in today's digital age are giving up their anonymity, as well as their autonomy to act without being subtly and emotionally swayed by marketing experts wielding highly sophisticated computer software.

Reports also indicate that targeted advertising not only keeps track of what you have bought in the past, but can also actually figure out exactly what factors TRIGGER you to buy the things that you buy. It has led to advertising campaigns that may specifically attempt to exploit intense emotions – such as insecurity and depression – for the sole purpose of making a sale.

As for how to avoid being the target of targeted ads, that's actually a very difficult path to navigate. For everything we do know about how advertisers acquire, analyze, and use your personal data, there's more than likely just as much – if not more – that we don't know about it. Corporate advertising is a very secretive game, so the best you can do is simply try to use your common sense when navigating websites and social media, and try not to put anything there that you wouldn't want a total stranger to know. Otherwise, it's possible this just may have to be an accepted aspect of life in the digital age going forward; that is, unless you just take your computer and smartphone and throw them both right in the dumpster. But ultimately, it simply involves making your own decisions, despite whatever may pop up in your mailbox or in your social media feed.

NEW YORK - Typically, your average American becomes incensed on a monthly basis every time Facebook changes their infamous privacy settings without making users aware of what they now may be sharing with the general public. But on average, this is the least of your worries, as the average user usually has more personally identifiable information out on the Internet – such as social media and other websites – then they might believe.

If you read the news, you'll frequently hear of various national and even worldwide companies experiencing horrifically large data breaches, with their customers’ sensitive information being potentially exposed to risk. In 2016, approximately 26 million Americans were the victims of identity theft, and one of the most typically traveled avenues for scammers and thieves to steal someone's identity is simply to do a Google search. Sometimes it is shocking what a certain term or name will return to a hard-working criminal.

However, one would expect the government to take additional strides to keep your personal information safe, as opposed to a large, soulless corporation. Unfortunately, you would probably be incorrect in assuming this to be the case. Information that would typically turn up in a white page search – in addition to much, much more – can be readily available to anyone searching the records of any American registered to vote through their Secretary of State website.

Recently, a former member of a cybersecurity firm was able to access live online voter registration systems of 40 different American states, and was able to acquire the home addresses, voter data, and race-related information of countless residents. This information typically is the very basis and starting point for anyone looking to steal your identity, and once they have this information in their clutches, it's much easier to track down anything else about you they need to know in order to start running up charges in your name. And once a thief has your information, it becomes that much easier for them to also acquire the information of your family members, exposing pretty much everyone you hold dear to this type of danger.

According to reports, North Carolina's voter registration system actually reveals the most information about the voters registered within its borders than any other state in the Union. A simple search involving a first and last name will return such information as a home address, voting status, voter registration number, voting party, ethnicity, voting record, and much more.
Likewise, Kansas’ voter registration system also makes the information of their residents who are registered to vote readily available to anyone armed simply with a name, including their personal address and a variety of information relating to their voting history.

With such a degree of vulnerability associated with being a registered voter in many states – although not every state in the country has these issues – you would think it simple to request having your information removed from any given voter registration database in order to ensure your safety. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In North Carolina, for example, a voter would need to prove that having this information publicly available would place them in physical danger by procuring a court-issued protective order.

A simple White Page search in any given state will produce a nearly endless supply of names to feed into state voter registration databases. From there, home addresses, race, ethnicity, and a number of other factors can be easily obtained, information that could be used potentially to open up fraudulent credit card accounts and fuel other devious activity.

Of course, one could argue that a lot of this information can be found in your typical white pages telephone directory as well, and that would be true. However, the one major difference is that an individual can always opt out of having a listing in a phone book or telephone directory; however, you're unable to opt out of being in a voter registration database, unless you make the decision not to ever vote at any local or national election ever again. However, removing yourself from the Democratic process of our nation seems like a costly and unnecessary decision to have to make in order to ensure that your privacy is protected.

However, some states are attempting to catch up with the times and are enacting measures in order to keep the voting data of their residents safer in this age of rampant identity theft. Some states have added additional and complicated steps that make it more difficult for individuals to obtain information on their voters, such as requiring a date of birth, social security number, or a driver's license ID number – or all of the above – before it will allow access to voter registration information.