O2 Giving out phone numbers?

Hey peeps,
Just seen a tweet about this wondering if it affects you too. Apparently if you are on O2, when you browse the internet on your phone, they send a HTTP Header to the server which contains your mobile phone number. This means that any site you visit in theory could ring you up for a chat.

if you are on O2 can you try this, make sure you are on your 3g or mobile data rather than wifi as it won't work.

http://lew.io/headers.php

This is totally un-verified so might just affect one or two people, just look at that web page see if you can see your phone number.

Edit: the Opera mini browser will hide the number as it works through a proxy

Giving out phone numbers what do you even mean?

I don't get it either.

Okay, so on your phone, if you are on O2, when you browse the internet, one of the bits of information that gets sent to the server is your mobile telephone number.

Still don't get it.
A phone number is just a number and totally useless unless its tied to a sim card or landline.

So your mobile number is sent to the websites you mean?

edited first post to clarify a bit

Robbo said:

So your mobile number is sent to the websites you mean?

Click to expand...

yes exactly. so any company's website you visit could quite happily give you a call without you ever giving them any information. That is the rumor anyway, I still don't know if it is true.

Yes it showing my phone number. Using Galaxy s2

Phone internet still works through IP doesn't it?

Your network gives you an IP and that is all the server sees, at least thats how I always thought it worked.

It does not show my phone number, I am on o2 using a galaxy nexus. Wifi is also disabled.

Aye, I can confirm that no number is displayed (GNex also).

Has anyone actually had a call or is it just a big rumour?

KiTBoH said:

Phone internet still works through IP doesn't it?

Your network gives you an IP and that is all the server sees, at least thats how I always thought it worked.

Click to expand...

Think a couple of layers up, the browser could put the mobile number in a HTTP message. Would be surprised if this was something at the operator level though, is more likely to be OS/browser dependent

I would imagine that this is just a client side function they are performing..

I just tested it on my house mates Iphone 3gs - on O2 and it showed up.

I wonder why the two of you above didn't have it.

What browser are people using as the Android stock browser and boat shows my phone number but Opera does not

I agree it would make sense that is was phone level not operator but that doesn't seem to be the case. multiple os/phone combos but the same problem

It won't show in Opera as its a proxy browser so masks the issue.

The headers sent are dependant on the browser used. There are specific ones specific in the standards which must be sent. To prove the point try opening the link in the OP in IE, Chrome and FF. You'll see completely different info each time.

I guess the couple who didn't see their phone number have a different FW or browser.

RomanNose said:

I would imagine that this is just a client side function they are performing..

Click to expand...

Well if you navigate there with a normal browser it shows the header that you'd expect so Im assuming it is actually being put in the HTTP Header.

Will have to pipe this through my own proxy tomorrow and see what the headers look like