EasyInfo directory shuts down

Johannesburg, 20 Feb 2002

EasyInfo`s controversial EasyPeople Personal Pages directory has been shut down after an out-of-court settlement was reached between Telkom and EasyInfo yesterday.

The terms of the agreement have been kept confidential. However, EasyInfo MD Alan Lipschitz says he is very happy with the settlement.

The settlement was reached after Telkom served papers last week, demanding that EasyInfo remove its new Personal Pages residential directory from the site. Telkom also demanded that EasyInfo hand over all copies of customer-confidential information and disclose all third-parties to whom the confidential information had been made available, apart from those who accessed it on EasyInfo`s Web site.

Telkom said in a statement that the agreement reached yesterday included EasyInfo`s disclosure of the source of its directory information.

Last week, EasyInfo said the directory was a joint project by EasyInfo and Umfowize Publishers, owners of the Personal Pages. At the time, the company was not prepared to divulge the original source of the data, saying only that it was compiled using "multiple industry databases".

This non-disclosure resulted in widespread speculation that Telkom`s own subscribers` database was used in the directory. Telkom denied having supplied the data to the Personal Pages, and launched an investigation into the matter. Telkom says in its latest statement that the investigation is continuing.