You may be reading this because a business used MobileValidate to check your phone number or e-mail address, or because your number appears in spam or nuisance-call report data. We did not collect this data from you, so this notice explains what we hold, where it comes from, what it is used for and how you can object, as Article 14 of the GDPR and similar laws require. The service is provided by MobileValidate LLC, a limited liability company registered in the United States (operating office: 5th floor, Minkara Building, Clemenceau Street, Beirut, Lebanon).
Why would your number or e-mail address be checked?
Our customers are businesses, such as online services, messaging providers, carriers and companies that contact their own customers. They send us phone numbers or e-mail addresses they already hold, usually from their own customers, sign-ups or contact forms. The service exists to fight spam and fraud and to make legitimate messages arrive, for example:
- to prevent fraud, such as fake sign-ups or one-time passcodes sent to numbers that can't receive them;
- to improve deliverability, such as fixing mistyped numbers and choosing a channel a message can reach;
- to screen calls against spam reports, and to verify leads.
Each check answers a narrow question. Does this number have an account on a given messaging app or online service? Does this mailbox exist? What line type and carrier does the number have? Has it been reported for spam? The answer is yes, no or unknown, or a small piece of network or reputation data. We never return your name, photo, profile, messages or location, and we never offer reverse lookups.
Will you be contacted or notified?
No message, call or e-mail is sent to you by MobileValidate, and we never contact you as part of a check. Our checks are designed so that they do not send you anything and do not alert you. The platforms, carriers and mail providers that hold the underlying accounts are independent companies: we do not control, and cannot guarantee, how they record or log the queries they receive. We never access your account, messages or contacts.
Who is responsible for the data?
- Checks: the business that submitted your number or address decides why it is checked and is the controller. It is responsible for having a legal basis and for telling you about it. We act as its processor: we run the check on its instructions, using our own technical means, and return the result only to that business. You can exercise your rights with that business, or with us (we will pass your request on and help it answer).
- Spam-reputation data and the suppression list: we are the controller.
What data do we hold about you?
- The identifier: your phone number in international format, or your e-mail address. It is stored encrypted, with a keyed hash so it can be matched without being readable.
- Check results: registered / not registered / unknown for each service checked, and the time of the check.
- Network data about the number: for example line type (mobile, landline or VoIP), the current carrier and the carrier the number was originally assigned to, whether it was ported, whether it is currently reachable on the mobile network, and the country. We never return or keep sensitive network identifiers such as IMSI or cell location.
- Spam-reputation data: a risk level and score, which classes of report exist, the most frequent report category, and the months the number first and last appeared. We don't hold report texts or anyone's name.
- Customer metadata: any reference the customer attaches to its request.
We do not hold, and the service does not produce, sensitive data about you (such as health, religion, ethnicity or sexual life).
Where does spam-reputation data come from?
For phone numbers from all countries we serve, we compile reputation signals from four classes of source:
- published actions by telecom regulators;
- government nuisance-call complaint data;
- community spam-report websites;
- public listings of numbers offered for sale as unassigned, which can point to a spoofed caller ID.
Our legal basis is legitimate interests: protecting people and businesses from spam and fraud calls. A reputation level is a signal, not a finding that anyone did something wrong. A number can appear in reports because someone else spoofed it. If you think this applies to your number, please object as described below.
How long is it kept?
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Real-time lookups | 7 days |
| Bulk jobs | 30 days by default; the customer can choose 1 day to 24 months, or delete earlier |
| Per-customer check history, used for that customer's cache, billing evidence and disputes | Up to 400 days |
| Spam-reputation data | Refreshed in full every day; removed at the next refresh once our sources no longer report the number |
| Suppression list | Until the suppression is lifted, and then as long as needed to prove we honoured it |
Results are never shared from one customer to another: each customer's cache is separate.
What rights do you have, and how do you use them?
You can ask for access to your data, for it to be corrected or erased, and for its processing to be restricted. You can also object to its use at any time.
- Opt out of checks: use the opt-out form and enter the phone number or e-mail address concerned. We review every request. Once it is approved, the identifier goes on our suppression list. It is then never checked again for any customer, and every customer receives the result
suppressedinstead. Erasure requests are handled the same way: the identifier is suppressed, and the data we hold about it is deleted, except what the suppression itself needs and what the law requires us to keep. - Access and other rights: e-mail support@mobilevalidate.com with "Privacy" in the subject line.
For your privacy, the opt-out form's reply is always the same and never confirms whether we hold data about an identifier. Before we release any data, we may ask for proof that you control the number or address. We answer within one month, or within the period your local law sets.
If you represent a platform, carrier or network rather than yourself, please use the Platform Rights Center instead of the opt-out form.
You have the right to complain to a data-protection supervisory authority, in particular in the country where you live or work. More detail on transfers, representatives and your rights under US state, Lebanese and UAE law is in our Privacy Policy.