THEY improv mentioned in the Boston Herald
- The Edge.
Dial up privacy with free online phone service
by Rochelle Stewart
Now you can give out your
phone number and still remain anonymous.
A new, free service lets you take control of who you wish to talk
to on the phone. And its creators believe it could become the
next wave of virtual communication.
PrivatePhone is a free phone-number and voice-mail service created
by NetZeroVoice. All calls go straight to voice mail and you are
alerted to the new message via e-mail or through a text message
on your cell phone. Users can check the message over the phone
or online.
Matt Wisk, executive vice president and chief marketing officer
of United Online, an Internet holding company that runs PrivatePhone,
said the idea was inspired after the infamous Paris Hilton cell
phone gaffe.
“Someone got ahold of her number and she was spammed with messages,”
Wisk said. “We decided to create a way for socially active people
to have a phone number that wasn’t as personal as a cell phone.”
The service, which has been available since May, has taken off,
Wisk said.
Now people are using the service for things such as posting items
on Craigslist, anonymous online dating and even as a promotional
tool, he said.
For Todd Rice and Will Luera of THEY improv, an improv troupe
that performs for corporations and charity events in Boston and
southern Florida, PrivatePhone has helped them manage the business
while they travel back and forth between the two locations.
“One main phone number gives us the look of having a much wider
and larger organization,” Luera said.
Ryan Hurley, a 23-year-old from Winchester, said PrivatePhone
gives him the ability to have a permanent number to use for resumes
and networking.
He also said he finds the service useful for peer-to-peer transactions
on the Internet.
“If I post something on eBay or Craigslist, I don’t want to give
out my personal phone number,” he said. “It also serves as a general
spam diversion.”
For
instance, Hurley uses the number when he signs up for something
online that requires a phone number as part of the application
or purchasing process.
“If someone does have to call, they leave a voice mail and I decide
if I want to call the person back,” he said.
Rice also uses PrivatePhone for personal calls.
“I don’t want a lot of people calling me at home,” he said.
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