Phone number meant to be private shouldn’t be associated with any other info whatsoever.

Whats the rationale behind this? Outside of prank calling, I don't see what the benefit of having a private phone number.

When I hit someone's voice mail I can get their name, so it's not like most people consider it to be private.

>I don't see what the benefit of having a private phone number.

What's the benefit of having a public phone number? You get more advertisements and spam. With a private phone number only people you've given the number to will call you. You can limit who can bother you.

I don't think this is really true, because spammers call numbers at random (or perhaps, in sequence). They are not working through the published phone book.

Then you probably shouldn't be announcing it in your caller ID when you call random people.

Probably not, but does making a person in making one mistake abdicate their right to privacy?