When people started calling my personal mobile number with questions about a voluntary organisation I'm involved with, I was confused: we weren't sharing that number. It turns out that Google had decided to take the number I used to verify my identity for Google Business some years prior and start putting it in Google Search results. WTF, Google?
Except he provided it for identify verification, and if I was asked for this my assumption would be they need a mobile number to send a verification text message. If Google wanted a business number in order to publish it online they should state that clearly.
The author suggests it was added through people answering the “is this a business” prompts on their phones, not the identity verification.
So, all you have to do to “out” anyone who ever talks to you on the phone is mis-inform Google that the number is a business and “boom” they’re out there.
Makes one want to start using callerID spoofing as a regular practice. I am calling from 212-555-1212.
What do you mean “out” them?
Get their phone number published on the open internet.
If you wanted to do that, you could just edit it into a business listing directly, or even create one. If it’s from the “was this a business” prompt, I expect it takes a bunch of people to say yes, not just one. (And if you get that prompt, Google associates your number with a business already.)
I expect the algorithm is a) not publicly published, and b) changes periodically - like to just require one click when a particular department needs to “make their numbers” by the end of the quarter.
I challenge you to find any “free and easy, one click” business listing that gets 0.1% of the visibility of a Google info business phone number.