Indian Text Service Stopped

Service giving contact details ended after complaints of harassment.

The Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has been forced to stop a text messaging service that gave the contact details of vehicle drivers. The reason? People has been using it to discover the identities of women drivers and pester them. According to the BBC, the service had run for a year, and anyone was free to send a text, in return receiving the vehicle owner’s name, address and phone number.   However, young men soon found out they could get the phone numbers of female drivers this way, and after a number of “informal complaints” from the police, the service has been discontinued.   “Now our system does not send back the address and phone number of the owner," deputy state Transport Commissioner Upendra Jain told the BBC.   But the state’s web site still lists addresses for vehicle owners.