Definition of Personal Data: Both the GDPR and Icelandic law unequivocally define phone numbers as "personal data." This means their collection, storage, and use are subject to strict legal requirements.
Lawfulness, Fairness, and Transparency: All processing of personal data must adhere to these core principles. This implies that individuals must be clearly informed about how their phone numbers will be used, and processing must have a valid legal basis (e.g., consent, contract, legitimate interest).
Prior, Explicit Consent: For most marketing and commercial prospecting activities, prior, explicit, and informed consent from the individual is a strict requirement. This is a crucial deterrent to the creation and use of unsolicited phone number lists. Consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous.
Purpose Limitation and Data Minimization: Phone numbers can only be collected for specific, legitimate purposes, and only the data necessary for that purpose should be collected.
Data Subject Rights: Individuals in Iceland (and the EEA) have extensive rights over their personal data, including:
Right of Access: To know what data is being held about them.
Right to Rectification: To correct inaccurate data.
Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): To request deletion of their data under certain circumstances.
Right to Object: To the processing of their data, particularly for direct marketing.
Persónuvernd (Icelandic Data Protection Authority): Persónuvernd is Iceland's independent data protection authority. It is responsible for enforcing the GDPR and Icelandic data protection laws, investigating complaints, and imposing significant fines for non-compliance (up to €20 million or 4% of annual revenue for serious violations).
These comprehensive legal provisions make the public jamaica phone number library dissemination of a comprehensive phone number directory for personal use fundamentally illegal and impractical.
Iceland's highly developed telecommunications sector includes major operators like Síminn, Vodafone (now Sýn), and Nova. These companies maintain vast subscriber databases for their internal operations but are legally bound by stringent privacy agreements and the GDPR. They do not provide comprehensive public directories of individual phone numbers.
Historically, printed telephone directories (like the one published by the Reykjavik Telephone Corporation in 1904 or the first national directory in 1907, now archived by the National and University Library of Iceland) existed. However, in the digital age, these have largely ceased for personal numbers due to privacy concerns.
While a full public "white pages" for individuals is not openly available, there are some limited directory assistance services via phone (e.g., dialing 118, 1818, 1819 or 1800). These are typically query-based services, not open databases.