KEY POINTS:
Businesses and Government agencies may be misusing the whitepages and yellowpages websites and face being blocked from them, says the Yellow Pages Group.
The company says the information on the sites is open for private use, but using it for business purposes is against the sites' terms and conditions.
"The ability to extract vast amounts of data has become more real for the average small business," said the company's chief information officer, Karl Wright.
The company suspects businesses - some may not even be aware they are breaching terms and conditions - are using the websites to make lists of potential customers.
This breached the rights of those listed and made use of the company's intellectual property for free, Mr Wright said.
"People want to be on the whitepages so their friends can find them, not to be put on a spam email list. That's not what our customers sign up for."
The company has been monitoring the use of the websites and has begun talking to about a dozen private businesses and Government agencies about their use of the sites.
It will restrict their access to the sites if, after discussions, terms and conditions continue to be breached.
Mr Wright said he did not know how much potential revenue the company was losing, but insisted the crusade was not about money - although if those listed gave their consent, the company could sell the information for a fee. "Clearly we're not going to charge Women's Refuge, but if there is a distinct commercial gain to be had, there's a conversation to be had there."
Privacy advocate Tim McBride said he would welcome any measures that would enhance people's privacy rights, but it had to be done in a practical way. "People can suffer from information gathered about them that is publicly available.
"If they can weed out inappropriate uses of that information, I'm supportive, but I have concerns of how it could be done in a meaningful way, without stopping others from legitimately using the information."
Mr Wright admitted there were obvious enforcement issues, but it was a growing problem and it needed to be discussed.
