Do Not Call Registry Set to Become Permanent

coondoggie passed us a NetworkWorld article about an initiative by the Senate to transform the Do Not Call list into a permanent institution. Originally individuals on the list were to have their place on the list revoked; up to a third of the people who signed up might have fallen off the list by the Autumn without renewing legislation. A move by the Senate this past Wednesday will permanently prevent salesmen from calling those who have registered for the list. "Aside from what telemarketing junk the bill does prevent, experts note what may also be a big deal is a provision that is NOT in this bill and that is protection for those other annoying time wasters: political robo calls."

Does it matter?

[overshoot]

The telemarketers have had the time now to engineer systems around the loopholes built into the law, so that we're pretty much back where we were before.

Don't think so? How many prosecutions have there been under the law in the last year?

Re:Finally....

[dgatwood]

Yes - But good luck persuading your "congresscritters" to add "political robo calls" to the list.

You misread the summary. The previous version of the legislation authorizing the DNC registry provided an exemption for non-profits, political calls, and surveys. The new one does not, so in effect, by not providing that exemption in this version, they did add those calls to the list of banned solicitation.

My feet are suddenly very cold. I think hell just became endothermic and is well on its way to a state transition.

Re:How about a do not mail list?

[vtscott]

The junkmail thing is definitely a pet peeve of mine, and it bothers me more than the telemarketing as well. At the last place I lived, we got junkmail from comcast about their internet service and comcast didn't even service our apartment complex. WTF? Where I live now I can't even remember the last day I went to the mailbox and there wasn't junk there. We recycle what we can, but I can't imagine how many trees die to bring us pizza coupons. And those trees would come in handy to offset the carbon emissions created when carting around that extra mail in the back of a mail truck... From wikipedia: [wikipedia.org]

* Each year, 100 million trees are used to produce junk mail. * 250,000 homes could be heated with one day's supply of junk mail. * Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year. [3] * The yearly production and disposal of junk mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars.

But it's big business for the postal service, which is why it stays. Again from wikipedia: [wikipedia.org]

In the United States, the United States Postal Service maintains that direct marketers pay the majority of the costs of mail. Bulk mail thereby subsidizes low cost stamps for letter, magazine, and book mailing.

So the difference is that telemarketers aren't as lucrative for phone companies as spammers are for the postal service. Which is why it's much harder to stop the junkmail.

Re:Finally....

[reddburn]

I worked at one of these places for a week (I had to leave before I killed myself), and actually, they get your name from public records and donor lists. If you've donated to a political campaign online, signed a petition, joined an e-mail list, even visited a political website with the right cookies (the first sophisticated tracking cookies were - according to R.N. Howard in New Media Campaigns - used by the RNC website in the 90s) in the past 9 years, your contact info is automatically added to that party's, candidate's, organization's (the RCCC, DCCC, moveon.org) list of people to harass on the phone.

If you tell them no, if you tell them anything *other* than to specifically "Remove me from your list," ("don't call again" doesn't work) they can legally call back in 90 days (6 mos. if you donate, and then they ask for 2x what you gave before as the start). Worse: you have to be the individual they're calling. If it's a spouse, the autodialer will call back the next day. The organization you donate to is paying these companies by the call, and the company also gets a percentage (right off the top) of your donation. Someone donates $50, the organization ends up with about $35 after all is said and done.