“If you’re an iPhone user looking to maintain a bit of privacy from time to time, you can now turn to a new app called Burner thats lets you create temporary phone numbers that can be disposed of at will,” Katie Marsal reports for AppleInsider.
“The development team over at Ad Hoc Labs says the app is ideal for dating, Craigslist, short-term projects, side businesses, bands, FaceBook marketing posts and any other endeavor for which you’d like to give out a phone number on a non-permanent basis,” Marsal reports. “You can create one or several numbers at the same time, each of which acts as a separate line within your iPhone that can be used for voice and SMS messaging. Outgoing calls will show your temporary Burner number on the recipient’s caller ID while incoming calls will either redirect to your main mobile number or go straight to voicemail, at your preference.”
Marsal reports, “Each number comes equipped with a ‘Burn’ button so that it can be destroyed when you’re done with it.”
Full article here.
More info and download link for Buriner ($1.99) via Apple’s App Store here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cue the calls from creepers in 3…2…
They should have named it Creepergasm™.
On the bright side, depending on your point of view, The Jerky Boys and Captain Janks are back in business!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
MDN, everything is traceable on the Internet. There’s really no anonymity on the ‘net.
the app is ideal for…. drug dealers, criminals, kiddie fiddlers….
I’d bet the authorities will be all over this like a rash in no time.
I guess they’ll have to ban pay as you go phones at the same time. /s
No need to worry about the scum bags of the world using this anomalously. As the ‘burn’ number has to know what the real world number is to be able to put the call through there will always be a trail back to the perp.
I’m already thinking this will be great for me when using Freecycle in the UK. When I offer or collect something I always feel uncomfortable giving my phone number out to a stranger, this app wil solve that.
Also great for going on dates, give the guy/gal your ‘burn’ number & if they don’t turn out to be the one then burn it and never hear from them again.
Yes. Let’s arrest them for it!
Seriously, there is nothing illegal about this. Ever hear of ‘innocent until proven guilty’?
There are already many services out there that offer free phone numbers (Google Voice, eVoice, privatenumber, etc). This isn’t anything new.
What’s new is that you can now install an app on your iPhone and access those services from a cellphone, rather than from a desktop computer.
This has been in existence for (at least, as far as I know) six years (which is when I last used it when I was selling my old apartment).
There is no doubt that many people from the other side of the law have been using this convenience for their “business”, but there is no denying that the service is very convenient precisely for the kinds of transactions they mention (buying / selling on eBay / craigslist, etc). You create a number, put it in your ad, when the transaction is complete, you get rid of it, and nobody ever gets your private number.
I now own the app.
Who wants to unload unwanted items in the classifieds, using your personal number for an item that sells on day one, but the phone rings non-stop for another week!
Dating is another cool use. Giving out phone numbers that expire will also make these developers a lot of gitas.
I can actually think of legit uses for that app, especially for those people who are cell-phone only, don’t live in their native area code, and use their cells for business.
This is exactly what I use Google Voice for. It’s a “spam” number just like GMail is my “spam” mail account.
For a minute there I thought Apple was going to include a mini disc slot (remember those) in the next iphone.