Stop Posting Of Phone Numbers

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:10 pm

I run a major support site with RN 2.4 and for some reason users are intent on publishing their phone numbers in the forums hoping someone will call them to discuss issues and talk them through fixes. No matter how much I stress to NOT publish private data, etc. it still happens on a regular basis.

Is there some way in RN to mask a phone number being posted with the output something like xxx-xxx-xxxx when a number is entered, much the same as masking dirty words,etc. It's getting problematic to have to keep up with this on a "daily" basis sometimes.

Cheers

registered · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:20 pm

You could add 0-9 in the censor list in the config file, but no numbers will appear.

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:26 pm

Thought of that but "no numbers will appear" like you said and that's not good in a support forum ... Sad

Cheers

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

Wow, I have never heard of nor seen this issue before. Programatically it could be most easily done with regex's. But I have to ask you what the issue really is? Imo, if people are stupid enough to post their phone numbers then so be it. Otoh, you could post a simple warning that anyone who posts their phone number will have their post removed and/or will be suspended for a set amount of time. Just my opinion Wink

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:31 am

Dealing with any support type forums you deal with a planet-wide cross section of users, some of which are desparate enough or computer-challenged enough to solicit a solution by any means, even if it means posting a phone number and/or email address so that a tech can walk them through the solution. Removing a post is not an option simply because it also removes the user's explanation of the issue at hand. Warnings as to the ramifications of posting private information go unheeded, you know as well as I do that users do NOT read posted instructions, not even the FAQS that contain solutions to problems. Removing (manually editing) any posted private information along with a note in the users post as to why it was removed usually transmits the "message". However, it gets quite tedious sometimes to have to continually do this - time is precious as you well know - hence the request for some means to censor out phone numbers. I have enough moderators that can be on the lookout and remove private info when/if necessary but an auto-number-censor would be quite useful. An auto-remove function would be nice simply because the search engines habitually grab posts more than once daily thereby making the private info available to the rest of the universe.

Cheers

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:20 am

i'm sorry but i dont understand the problem you have with , that others put theire phonenumber on your forum.
Is there a law i am not aware of that you could be responseble for anything related to this?
On the other hand , most phonenumbers are not private but public.
A good reference to check that is a phonebook!

I'm sorry that this isnt the solution you looking for, but it might be worth a thought.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:29 pm

Actually I have the duty as owner/admin to attempt to protect my users from posting potential harmful information that may compromise their privacy. Most of my users are registered with an alias, not their real name. With that in mind how do you propose to find the phone number for the user "Winnie The Pooh" for example in any "phonebook" on the planet if it's not posted in the forum? Very Happy

While not legally responsible for a user posting private information, I do feel it necessary to remove a phone number in order to protect the user, mostly from themselves.

Cheers

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:05 pm

here: http://bbantispam.com/lr/ is a free code to prevent spam from "unregistered users".

Inside it there's also a option to block phonenumbers ( sort of).
You could manipulate the code and use it in your forum.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:16 pm

Interesting concept but unusable here because anonymous unregistered users cannot post anyway.

Cheers

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:17 pm

wHiTeHaT wrote:

here: http://bbantispam.com/lr/ is a free code to prevent spam from "unregistered users".

Inside it there's also a option to block phonenumbers ( sort of).
You could manipulate the code and use it in your forum.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:25 pm

I looked at it and it appears to work only for unregistered "guests". I'll continue to have a look ..

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:26 pm

grab the code abouth the phonenumber block and use that as a leed to get the thing done as you want.

That was the reason i showed you this script.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:32 pm

Like I said, I'll continue to look at it.

Cheers

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:51 pm

I know this problem very well and I also know you can´t change people. This means I have given up with this issue. Of course I have in my rules how to deal with private data.I hate spammers and I fight against spam since I opened my forum years ago but it looks like it doesn´t matter how often I tell our user not to post puplic data.
Only a few times I had some user which asked me after months to remove this info from their post.
I don´t use the forums censor but you can try.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:12 pm

Just adding the area code numbers of every area code in the USA as censor words would be prohibitive and non-productive anyway. I think it's time to give up as well and deal with the issue when/if it presents itself ... Would be an interesting add-on at any rate. My Son teaches computer science at the college level. May make it a class project .. LOL

Cheers

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:27 pm

dad7732,

I would place the code in a file to be included in modules/forums/posting.php. But you could just paste this code right into the script. Note that I haven't melded the variable names for use in posting.php but have written a more generic form. If you need help in making it fit exactly then just let me know. Also, it shouldn't matted how many times the number is repeated even though I only used 1 for this example.

Catching them all will/may probably take several tries but here is one I put together for you to get you started Smile

. Even though it took a couple of hours it was fun! - Enjoy!

Code:

<?php


/***


Find phone numbers in documents using word boundary tokens (\b) in an attempt to avoid non phone number type matches


Written by Gaylen Fraley (aka Raven)


March 9, 2010


Free for use


***/





$op = 'replace';  // match or replace


$testPhoneNumber = '(01)1234567890';


$replacement = '#';


$text = 'This is testing for matching/replacing a phone number type entry of ' . $testPhoneNumber . '. <br />Did it work?';


$origText = $text;  // Don't change this!





$phonePattern     = '\(?\b([0-9]{3})\)?[-. ]?([0-9]{3})[-. ]?([0-9]{4})\b';


$phoneIntlPattern = '\(?\b([0-9]{2})\)?[-. ]?([0-9]{3})\)?[-. ]?([0-9]{3})[-. ]?([0-9]{4})\b';  // For including International codes





switch ($op) {


   case 'match':


      if (preg_match_all("/$phoneIntlPattern/", $text, $matches)) {


      // Successful match


         echo '<strong>Match!</strong><br />';


         print_r($matches);


      } else {


      // unSuccessful match


         echo '<strong>No Match.</strong>';


      }


   break;


   case 'replace':


      if (preg_match_all("/$phoneIntlPattern/", $text, $matches)) {


      // Successful match


         echo '<strong>Match!</strong><br />';


         print_r($matches);


         echo '<br /><br /><strong<u>Now I\'ll try and replace/delete the phone number using the $replacement value of ' . $replacement . '.</u></strong><br />';


         echo '<br /><strong><u>Original Text:</u></strong><br />' . $origText . '<br />';


         echo '<br /><strong><u>Modified Text:</u></strong><br />' . preg_replace("/$phoneIntlPattern/", $replacement, $text);


      } else {


      // unSuccessful match


         echo '<strong>No Match.</strong>';


      }


   break;


   default:


   break;


}


?>

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:51 pm

Added to posting.php as:

include_once("modules/Forums/includes/phone_numbers.php");

And of course created the file "phone_numbers.php" and uploaded to /Forums/includes

When clicking "new post" or "reply" I get at the top:

Quote:

Match!
Array ( [0] => Array ( [0] => (01)1234567890 ) [1] => Array ( [0] => 01 ) [2] => Array ( [0] => 123 ) [3] => Array ( [0] => 456 ) [4] => Array ( [0] => 7890 ) )

Now I'll try and replace/delete the phone number using the $replacement value of #.

Original Text:
This is testing for matching/replacing a phone number type entry of (01)1234567890.
Did it work?

Modified Text:
This is testing for matching/replacing a phone number type entry of #.
Did it work?

And a phone number is still a phone number

Cheers

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:18 pm

in viewtopic.php
around line 1163 find :

Code:

        //


        // Replace newlines (we use this rather than nl2br because


        // till recently it wasn't XHTML compliant)


        //


        if ( $user_sig != '' )


        {


                $user_sig = '<br />_________________<br />' . str_replace("\n", "\n<br />\n", $user_sig);


        }

BELOW ADD:

Code:

//TEST


    // VIEW POSTS Find phone contacts





      preg_match_all("/\d\d\d-\d\d-?\d\d/", $message, $phones);


      foreach ($phones[0] as $phone) {


         $message = str_replace($phone, '*-IDIOT you should not give your phonenumber-*', $message);


      }





//END TEST

So it looks something like this:

Code:

        //


        // Replace newlines (we use this rather than nl2br because


        // till recently it wasn't XHTML compliant)


        //


        if ( $user_sig != '' )


        {


                $user_sig = '<br />_________________<br />' . str_replace("\n", "\n<br />\n", $user_sig);


        }


//TEST


    // VIEW POSTS Find phone contacts





      preg_match_all("/\d\d\d-\d\d-?\d\d/", $message, $phones);


      foreach ($phones[0] as $phone) {


         $message = str_replace($phone, '*-IDIOT you should not give your phonenumber-*', $message);


      }





//END TEST


        $message = str_replace("\n", "\n<br />\n", $message);

i tested it with the folowing phonenumber:

123-45-67 you will see it works.
You should ask here abouth what other phone number formats you can expect couse i'm not familiar with other country's phonenumbers.

To create a WARNING in the preview mode (before someone submits a post) you could add in posting.php around line 731 directly below:

Code:

      if( $attach_sig && $user_sig != '' )


      {


         $preview_message = $preview_message . '<br /><br />_________________<br />' . $user_sig;


      }

Code:

// PREVIEW Find phone contacts


   function check_for_phone_in_preview($preview_message) {


      preg_match_all("/\d\d\d-\d\d-?\d\d/", $preview_message, $phones);


      foreach ($phones[0] as $phone) {


         $preview_message = str_replace($phone, '*-IDIOT you should not give your phonenumber-*', $preview_message);


      }


      return $preview_message;


   }


     $preview_message = check_for_phone_in_preview($preview_message);

Have fun!!!

Grtzz wHiTeHaT Wink

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:33 pm

Both work just fine, even with the customary USA area code format of:

xxx-xxx-xxxx

Such as 504-555-1212 .. area code 504 information

Shows up as 504-*- IDIOT ..... Smile

Works even if submitted and not previewed.

Cheers

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:34 pm

a reference especialy for phone numbers can find here:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php#90503

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:37 pm

it is verry delicate to use such tricks , a problem can occur when someone wants to create a link with a number in it or a model number or part number of an object.
The hard solution would be to exclude all other posseble uses of numbers in a forum post.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:04 pm

I understand but in my case there is no problem with links and such with numbers posted for version numbers, etc. Mine is strictly a browser-mail support forum.

Cheers

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:11 pm

All very interesting .. THANKS!!

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:07 pm

dad7732,

As I said Smile

I wrote a generic script. That way anyone who uses it can see the progression. To integrate it you will need to leave out the echos and modify the code accordingly for your purposes, which I assumed you could do Wink

In posting.php, around line 1008 depending on your version, you should see the following 4 lines:

Code:

//


// Output the data to the template


//


$template->assign_vars(array(

Before the first line // place your include statement. So now that code looks like this:

Code:

include_once("modules/Forums/includes/phone_numbers.php");


//


// Output the data to the template


//


$template->assign_vars(array(

Now modify the generic script (modules/Forums/includes/phone_numbers.php) to look like this:

Code:

<?php


/***


Find phone numbers in documents using word boundary tokens (\b) in an attempt to avoid non phone number type matches


Written by Gaylen Fraley (aka Raven)


March 9, 2010


Free for use


***/


$testPhoneNumber = '(01)1234567890';


$replacement = '#';


$text = 'This is testing for matching/replacing a phone number type entry of ' . $testPhoneNumber . '. <br />Did it work?';





$phonePattern     = '\(?\b([0-9]{3})\)?[-. ]?([0-9]{3})[-. ]?([0-9]{4})\b';


$phoneIntlPattern = '\(?\b([0-9]{2})\)?[-. ]?([0-9]{3})\)?[-. ]?([0-9]{3})[-. ]?([0-9]{4})\b';  // For including International codes


$message = preg_replace("/$phoneIntlPattern/", $replacement, $message);


?>

I do not recommend Whitehat's solution, as it stands, because he is not taking into consideration word boundaries. So a number that is a part of a word/phrase will be caught by his code if it resembles his pattern but isn't really a phone number, ie a false postive. That's why I specifically noted in the credits Find phone numbers in documents using word boundary tokens (\b) in an attempt to avoid non phone number type matches as it will eliminate more false positives. Smile

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:19 pm

Excellent colaboration!!!