192.com is a British company that publishes an online

directory Directory may refer to: * Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files * Directory (OpenVMS command) * Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network' ...

as well as information contained within the public domain for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. The company provides online directory enquiries and competes with BT, Google Local, Yelp and the

Yell Group Hibu Inc. (styled hibü), formerly Yellowbook Inc., is a provider of digital marketing and advertising solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses across the US. Hibu’s specialties includes web development and hosting, digital listings and ...

(the holding company now known as hibu, as of 2012) for the directory enquiry market. It is the market leader DQ for finding people. 192.com contains approximately 700 million residential and business records. Of these records, 200 million come from the 2002-2017 edited Electoral Rolls, though some of these are duplicate records. 28 million people were on the edited Electoral Roll in 2015. 192.com's other records come from

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the company registrars of the United Kingdom, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies (as permitted by the Companies Act) are in ...

Director Reports, the

Land Registry Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

, and Births Deaths and Marriages Data for England and Wales. 192.com also publishes a directory of UK businesses, providing company

credit report :''This article deals with the general concept of the term credit history. For detailed information about the same topic in the United States, see Credit score in the United States.'' A credit history is a record of a borrower's responsible repa ...

s, financial statements, employee numbers, current and previous directors, web mentions and county court judgements. Registered users can also add details to any business listings using User Generated Content of non-limited companies in addition to limited companies.

History

Founded in 1997 by

Alastair Crawford Alastair Crawford is CEO and founder of i-CD Publishing, the precursor to 192.com. An internet entrepreneur, he founded ''i-CD Publishing (UK) Ltd'' in 1997, which published the UK-info Disk range. He was the first person to publish the electora ...

, 192.com Limited evolved from a

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both com ...

product called UK Info Disk, the best selling non-game CD-ROM product of its time. 192.com publishes the Edited Electoral Roll in electronic media; previously the roll had been available for consultation only in public libraries and town halls. The company offered an alternative to

British Telecom BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, b ...

's previous monopoly of telephone

directory enquiries In telecommunications, directory assistance or directory inquiries is a phone service used to find out a specific telephone number and/or address of a residence, business, or government entity. Technology Directory assistance systems incorporate ...

. There were a number of lawsuits related to this online challenge. During the dotcom bubble in 2001 icd publishing was valued at £100 million. In February 2011 icd publishing Ltd split in half; the two units were named 192.com Ltd and 192business Ltd. On 1 March 2012, half of the company 192business Ltd was sold to Experian Plc for an undisclosed sum, though the gross value of the assets was £9 million.

Products

In 2010, 192.com Limited launched i192, an app for iPhones supplying free directory enquiries and 192.com's business and residential listings for mobile web users. However, some users found the app difficult to use. In 2012, the company released a new product, 'See Who's Looking for You'. In 2013, the company released a new product, 'Background Reports', which includes edited electoral roll information, any county court judgements, mortality data, land registry details and an insolvency report.

Reunions

The company has helped reunite missing family and friends - for example, the Salvation Army use 192.com to reunite an estimated 3,000 families each year. However, in September 2011, 192.com's competitor Tracesmart won the Salvation Army account. In 2010 it featured in the BBC 1 series Trackers as a tool for tracing lost family and forgotten financial assets.

Customer concerns

The Review Centre has over 140 reviews with an average rating of one star. The main complaint is lack of transparency as to what data is available for specific records. Other complaints include paid credits being used during searches that would be free if not logged in, poor customer service and credits expiring within 30 days if not used.

Privacy concerns

Some people find the depth of detail an invasion of privacy, with information being seen using search engines."73 signatures from Oct 18, 2010 'Shutdown 192.com' petition on gopetition.com" These have the option of deleting their details. There is an opt-out on the electoral roll registration papers, or on 192.com's website by filling out a 'C01' form which can be downloaded and sent online. 192.com is licensed and regulated by the

Data Protection Act 2018 The Data Protection Act 2018 (c. 12) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which updates data protection laws in the UK. It is a national law which complements the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and replaces the Data P ...

Literature

192.com is mentioned in

Dick Francis Richard Stanley Francis (31 October 1920 – 14 February 2010) was a British steeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels centre on horse racing in England. After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, winn ...

's novel ''Shattered'' where the protagonist uses 192.com to trace a missing person.

References

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