Entire Federal Government Exempt From Robocall Laws, FCC Rules (thehill.com) 188
An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Hill: Late Tuesday night, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that the entire federal government is exempt from consumer protection laws that limit unwanted robocalls. They ruled that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 doesn't apply to the federal government, while the law does bar businesses from making numerous autodialed or prerecorded calls to a person's cellphone. The FCC did also make contractors working on behalf of the government exempt from the law as well. Earlier this year, a Supreme Court case found that the law does not apply to the government because of sovereign immunity. However, the FCC ruled that the government falls outside the law's definition of a "person." "Indeed, had Congress wanted to subject the federal government to the TCPA, it easily could have done so by defining 'person' to include the federal government," according to the ruling. Therefore, contractors hired by members of Congress can robocall individuals to participate in town halls, government researchers can place autodialed calls to the cellphones of survey respondents, and contractors can make similar calls to offer information about social security. The ruling does not apply to lawmakers who are using the calls for political campaigns.
Well, of course it is! It's the damn government. (Score:2, Insightful)
It is exempt from everything. Who cares? The voters don't. So why should I dwell on it?
Shrugged again, alas (Score:4, Insightful)
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"Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry." - unknown origin
(Not Thomas Jefferson, as often attributed)
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By definition, isn't acceleration just change in velocity?
Re:Well, of course it is! It's the damn government (Score:4, Insightful)
Because emergency information? Duh.
With more and more people kicking out TVs (which is absolutely understandable), please tell me of a way to inform a large amount of people of a danger in their area. And note that you don't have a few thousand people standing by to call everyone, this ain't the 50s, phone operators are a thing of the past.
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<sarcasm>Why can't they just post it to FB like everyone else these days?</sarcasm>
Not an emergency and FCC shouldn't overrule Congre (Score:2)
First, this isn't about emergencies, it's about solicitations. Specifically, asking donors and other likely supporters to participate in "town halls" hosted by the politician.
More importantly, Congress is supposed to make the law, notbthe Obama administration. Congress duly passed the law saying government contractors may use robocalls "solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States." It further instructed the FCC publish detauled rules about that one exception that Congress allowed.
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And yes, that should be disallowed. But outlawing robocallers would be tossing the baby with the bathwater.
Re:Not an emergency and FCC shouldn't overrule Con (Score:5, Insightful)
And yes, that should be disallowed. But outlawing robocallers would be tossing the baby with the bathwater.
More and more people are adopting the technique of not answering any number they don't recognize. So if I set the phone to only ring those in my address book - its all good until someone goes to the trouble of mining my address book and spoofing numbers of my list.
In other words, the telephone system is so broken it is of very little use any more. It's my last line of communication, and since "do not call" has never worked, I've implemented "Do Not Answer".
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...I've implemented "Do Not Answer".
Yep. If I don't know it, it goes to vmail. If they don't leave a vmail, it wasn't important.
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But outlawing robocallers would be tossing the baby with the bathwater.
The phrase "baby with the bathwater" assumes that there is something of precious value in with the valueless, even objectionable and polluted, surrounding media. That is an assumption that is not valid when it comes to "robocalling". Robocalling should be illegal, period, end of sentence. There is nothing of value that necessitates such abuse of the telephone system.
The closest to useful I've ever found these things are when my doctor's office uses one to call to remind me of an appointment. But since the
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It has its place in emergency services. That it can be abused, and it is abused, is a given. Of course, it's far too tempting to use it to spam people. It's not any different than the ability to spew out thousands of emails per second. That can be used to give a lot of people important information in a flash, and it is abused to spam millions of people with crap.
What this needs is regulation. Limitation to specific messages only, with everything beyond warning of immediate threats requiring you to opt-in (N
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Congress DID make the law. The statute limits the prohibition to "persons." There's longstanding legal precedent that referring to a "person" does not include the Federal Government, unless specifically indicated. The statute makes no such indication. If Congress had wanted to include the Federal Government among the limited parties, it should have said so.
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My TV doesn't do a good job of notifying me...
- when I'm at work. no live TV within view.
- when I'm driving to and from work. Radio? Not when I'm listening to streaming whatever.
Sadly, while my government will rely upon emergency service to justify the exemption, they will use it for every purpose. And if Hillary becomes President, be sure, certain beyond doubt, my government will use this to threaten and intimidate me, to justify its' expansion, to market itself to me, and to engage me solely to improve i
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My TV doesn't do a good job of notifying me... - when I'm at work. no live TV within view. - when I'm driving to and from work. Radio? Not when I'm listening to streaming whatever.
And my telephone does absolutely nothing to notify me in either situation. It can ring and ring and ring all it wants, there's nobody home in either case to hear it. Just my poor, overworked answering machine.
Our county crowed about how it has paid a company to do robocalling for emergency events. I called the company and told them to remove my number from that list, as the law allows me to do. They said they could not. The county decided to test the system. During the day. About 2PM. Do you know how many
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In Europe (at least in Denmark) we still have sirens placed around the country that can be used to warn against impending air attack (the original use), chemical spill or other such nasty "Get to safety!" events.
Besides, they could just add a "State of Emergency" clause rather than allowing political solicitors to call you whenever.
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I have no reason to believe that people are kicking out their TVs, It's merely that now there are far more things to hook up a TV to than a handful of broadcast networks. You can no longer just commandeer the Big 3 networks and get the word out. The S.A.M.E. system works for people with weather radios, but a lot more people have telephones than have weather radios, where alert-friendly radios or otherwise.
The Federal, State, and local governments have thus far limited their robocalling to bona-fide emergenc
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Around here, they commandeer the cable systems to deliver emergency notifications, and this then imposes these warnings on every channel. Even the ones you aren't subscribed to.
The government isn't going to let you escape their control until you make them.
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By your logic, I guess Paul Revere was an oppressive abuser of power, then.
Re: Is in *my* phone or not ? (Score:2)
By your logic, Paul Revere sounded the alarm throughout Massachusetts...
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Around here, they commandeer the cable systems to deliver emergency notifications, and this then imposes these warnings on every channel. Even the ones you aren't subscribed to.
If you aren't subscribed to it, how do you know the notification appears there? Hmm???
In fact, on modern systems, the notification appears on one channel (when it is a required cable system test and not just the local station) and your cable box is instructed remotely to tune to that channel. It is then supposed to be instructed to tune back when the test is over, but sometimes that fails. It seems to be a setting in the local system, because my HD Homerun system would switch to but not back from the notic
Re: Is in *my* phone or not ? (Score:2)
On Prism, it banners and sounds an alarm on the channel your watching. Change and the other channels also have the banner and alarm. People who have premium channels I don't tell me they get the warnings.
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Why do I have that feeling that you'd be one of those people who lament endlessly that government didn't tell them that a tornado was coming their way and they didn't get their house prepared...
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Why do I have that feeling that you'd be one of those people who lament endlessly that government didn't tell them that a tornado was coming their way and they didn't get their house prepared...
There are many ways to get weather notices. A NOAA radio is a great way. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/co... [noaa.gov]
You can get the info direct from them using either an app or a radio like this one: http://www.northerntool.com/sh... [northerntool.com]
This is a superior method to telephones, which in emergencies are often not accessible. Smartphones are cool and all, but I wouldn't trust my life to one.
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Do people still jump and pick up the phone every time it rings? I know I don't. In fact, during meal time and when I'm asleep I put it on silent. I am unreachable by telephone during those times.
The more I think about it, robocalls aren't such a big deal. We have the tech to block them. So, I guess the issue is resolved.
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Well with Hillary immune from (Score:4, Interesting)
Basic espionage laws along with destruction of evidence and lying to the FBI (which is what Martha Stewart was jailed for)
Why should government be bound by any laws us little people have to follow?
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Because the government HAS to be able to contact it's citizens... they aren't retailors or a political party. It's obvious the robocall law was not made to apply to the government and it should not because it would harm the nation.
Citizens and govenrment are really the same thing in a democracy, but mandatory public services really need to be able to send out automated messaged.
Are you really saying Amber Alerts should be illegal because that's where you would be going with saying the government should not
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WTF are you talking about? Government absolutely spams people. Government is a bunch of politicians, each one with their own agenda, each one trying to make some money/name for himself. This has nothing to do with any so called 'public good' (there is no such thing anyway). These robocalls are illegal and now the government says: fuck you all, we are above the law. We will call you, promote our agenda, ask for money, threaten you into compliance, into voting a particular way, etc.etc.etc.
Tyranny of a co
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I was unaware that most tyrants didn't surround themselves with what amounts to a hydra.
Re:Well with Hillary immune from (Score:5, Interesting)
WTF are you talking about? Government absolutely spams people. Government is a bunch of politicians, each one with their own agenda, each one trying to make some money/name for himself. This has nothing to do with any so called 'public good' (there is no such thing anyway). These robocalls are illegal and now the government says: fuck you all, we are above the law. We will call you, promote our agenda, ask for money, threaten you into compliance, into voting a particular way, etc.etc.etc.
Tyranny of a collectivist government is worse than tyranny of a singular tyrant. A tyrant can be taken down, even killed. How do you kill the hydra that is a collectivist government?
Seriously? You don't like the government's policies, so your first reaction is to kill the leader? For the love of god, you're a shining example of the extremism that's become fashionable nowadays. This isn't Iran, if you have a problem you protest peacefully or become active in politics yourself, you don't fucking assassinate people.
Second off, I think the AC parent is the only one I've read so far who's RTFA. If you actually did, it still bans politicians, which will prevent the at times harassing political bombardments, but the government itself is of course going to need to call people. Businesses are exempt when they do business - but what does the government do? It's sure as hell not supposed to be business. Without the mass calling exemption, they wouldn't be able to distribute natural disaster alerts, the Amber Alert system would be questionable, and I think we can all agree saying no to a researcher the one time in your life you're called isn't too hard compared to the benefits scientific studies bring us all. I'm as frustrated with our government as anyone is right now, but geez people, think before saying something.
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This isn't Iran, if you have a problem you protest peacefully or become active in politics yourself, you don't fucking assassinate people.
- I disagree. I think assassinating government officials makes perfect sense, they don't give a hoot about assassinating anybody and everybody if that's what it takes to stay in power. Starting wars, murdering thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands, millions, all of this is done by governments. Sure, sure, governments have support of their people, but that's the problem - the people are very often uninformed, unintelligent creatures that follow another 'charismatic' asshole down the drain. Sometimes that 'charismatic' asshole needs to be taken down to pull the people out of their idiocy. Sometimes the dear leader simply cannot be replaced by any other means (see North Korea for example).
As to the fucking collectivist governments, like the ones in USA, EU, those are the worst types of offenders where it comes to impossibility of getting rid of a completely fucked up situation.
I am against the very existence of the IRS, Federal reserve bank, FDIC, FHA, EPA, FCC, FBI, departments of all shapes and sizes, SS, Medicare, Medicaid, every form of welfare, every form of theft and redistribution.
These things cannot be eliminated because the people who are voting will always vote to take from others what they think is their entitlement. These things should not exist in the USA in the first place, not a single one of them is Constitutional, every one of them is usurpation of power. AFAIC the power is already such that it is way beyond the normal process, there is no way to abolish all of these institutions without a violent event. A violent event is coming, it will be brought upon by the crash of the US bonds and the dollar itself. The violence is coming and these institutions will be gone simply because the very foundation for them, the US dollar that is fake (defaulted upon back in 1971) is going to fail and the Fed will make sure it fails in the worst way possible.
We are alive on this planet today, not tomorrow necessarily, not 100 years from now but right now. We should not suffer any of this right now.
Well, the US must be so hard for you, but Somalia embraces all of these. No IRS, no Medicaid, no government! Just those sweet leader assassinations and the warm African desert. What's not to like?
And how much are we willing to bet that all of these services, the retirement, the health insurance, the police, how much are we willing to bet you use all of these? You can't escape taxes without revoking your citizenship, but at least you can be an honest anarchist and refuse to use any and all government serv
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again you prove your ignorance.
There are many legitimate government functions where they may want to call you, and the robocall law was clearly/ not aimed at blocking things like the IRS calling because you owe taxes, or FBI calling because they want to speak to you.
Such things are hardly tyranny, though twits like you apparently think the governments mere existence is tyranny.
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So which one is it? Is the government a bunch of individuals or a collective?
The fact that you can keep posting your rants about tyranny strongly implies you don't actually live under one.
But to answer
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But those bastards always melt away when push comes to Indictment, because they have _nothing_. If they did have anything, other than sound bites, they would seriously pursue Conspiracy charges
QFTMFT
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Here is the problem, Liberals are saying "Clinton isn't guilty" (legal meaning) so they are going to vote for her, which sounds a lot like "I hired Casey Anthony to babysit" to me.
And if you bring up Trump, I'll simply say ... "pointing to bad behavior to justify bad behavior doesn't work on me"
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Liberals are going to vote for Hillary because she's the closest thing to a liberal that's available. "Not guilty" is relevant because it affects availability.
"Work on you" in what sense? Surely you don't think any
Any More Questions About why Hillary is Not Guilty (Score:1, Informative)
Congress Often exempts them selves from Laws.
Insider trading, sexual harassment.
Law that cover them tend to be weakened.
Robocall laws are a joke (Score:2)
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Either you're unlucky or you have a poor memory. The number of calls I get is dramatically lower since the do not call list.
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The scam calls were already illegal. So of course they don't care about robocall laws.
However, having a mobile phone only means I don't recall the last time I received one of those.
Perhaps someone got your financial details and is directing scams at you? Not sure how to deal with that level of identity theft.
Leave it to the government... (Score:2)
Thank goodness my call blocker can block this crap! I like mine so much that I bought one as a gift for my parents.
More fun times ahead (Score:4, Interesting)
The best method to discourage sales or political calls is to engage them in useless time consuming discussion about imaginary family or to request a moment to get a pen, and put the phone down for minutes then return with a pen, that mysteriously won't write, ramble on like a dementia afflicted individual. It takes a bit of time but can be quite amusing and I've found it to be very effective. Often informing the other side that you are recording the conversation for future entertainment purposes will discourage them as well.
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Now is the time when we need to demand more citizen/voter accountability for the FCC from our elected representatives... a government agency declaring that the government is above the law for something as non-critical to government function as RoboCalling? It's time for some unreasonable response...
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Any suggestions ?
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Force the issue in Congress, set up RoboCalling centers overseas in non-extradition countries and blast anyone with any kind of connection to lawmakers with a sustained "campaign message" that RoboCalling should be banned. Hit their personal cell phones, hit their e-mail accounts, spoof addresses to appear like they're coming from their home district. You know, all the things that RoboCallers do already.
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True enough (Score:2)
Got a point there, but I rarely get a true robo call except for political ads, they are usually a robo dialer connecting for a human after you answer.
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Indeed, informing the other side that the call is recorded and will go straight to my YouTube channel usually shortens the call duration and reduces the number of repeat offenses considerably.
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Obligatory Lenny reference:
http://www.independent.co.uk/l... [independent.co.uk]
We should really be using machine learning to create the ultimate anti telemarketeer chatbot. On the other hand, if there is one set of interactions that would drive AI to want to destroy humanity, it is this one.
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The best method to discourage sales or political calls is to engage them in useless time consuming discussion
So they push the button that says they weren't able to contact you and your number goes back into the pool to be called again (sometimes within five minutes or less), and they hang up. You've wasted your time answering the call and trying to talk to them. The predictive dialer has handed them another victim to talk to before you have time to hang up the phone.
Congrats, they won that round.
Why do you even need them these days? (Score:2)
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With the Internet, Email, SMS .... why do you even need robocalls these days with so many areas to access information?
Because ninety-five percent of people doing robocalls are crooks, scumbags, and scammers. And most older, retired people (their chosen mark) still use telephones as a primary means of communication.
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The main robocall we get is from our county school district, but that's because we let them.
The other 60% of robocalls are annoying as f___ sales idiots who couldn't manage to close a sale even if we were interested in their offering. Any endeavor that annoys 10,000 people for every one that might be interested needs to stop. Of course, that would attack television advertising at its core, so I suppose that's a losing battle.
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most older, retired people (their chosen mark) still use telephones
Still use landlines.... why do they target unlisted cell phone numbers?
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why do they target unlisted cell phone numbers?
For the same reason they target random email addresses. The cost is essentially zero and any rate of success is a win for them.
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But this article is about robocalls made by the government-- Oh, I see your point.
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Because cat videos and 9gag don't inform you about a hurricane coming your way. Just because people COULD get relevant information doesn't mean they DO.
Don't expect help from the government. (Score:4, Interesting)
We are simply on our own.
If you can, get a caller ID machine that allows you to create a white list of numbers that can get through and send all others straight to the answering machine which you can later blacklist from getting in at all. Works for email, I whitelist my inbox in order to take care of old business before wrestling with new business going into the spam box.
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What fantasy world are you guys living in? The government does not spam people.
Yes, they do. Or rather, Politican candidates (Often incumbents re-running for office)
Generate a hell of a lot of spam, every time there is an election coming up, and there are also always at least 3 or 4 calls for some voter survey too.
Now, not all of these are done under the auspicies of the government, but often there will be at least 3 or 4 messages from the local incumbent regarding Town hall meeting, "reminder t
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You do know the first rule of voting, don't you? "When in doubt, vote the Ins Out"
Or to put it another way, you should either vote for or against (usually against) the incumbent. Never vote against the challenger. The only time you should vote for the incumbent is if the incumbent has done something which gives you a compelling reason to vote for them. If the incumbent
Re: Don't expect help from the government. (Score:4, Insightful)
No, of course you should be allowed to block the hurricane warning. At the same time, you should, if you choose to do so, not expect any kind of compensation from your insurance.
Idiocy should not be rewarded.
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if you choose to do so, not expect any kind of compensation from your insurance.
That is Grade A Horse shit right there. Insurance compensation is for a loss IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER contingent on the policyholder receiving advance notice about a hurricane warning.
Insurance is also In No Way Whatsoever dependent on the policyholder's behavior before the loss.
It's not as if a hurricane is more likely to strike when you ignore or don't receive the notice.
You're not even required to own a telephone or c
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You have an insurance that doesn't care whether you were negligent? Awesome, please inform me where I could get something like that! I always wanted to have a car insurance the pays even if I'm speeding while drunk!
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What my insurance expects is me doing what can reasonably be expected from someone to mitigate damages. I'm expected to not drive while drunk. Also, having a grand open fire BBQ right under the old, wooden doorframe I just gave a new coat of paint with that "flammable" labeled paint might not be something my fire insurance looks kindly at.
But, again, if you know of any that allow you to be a total moron and act like one, yet still pay in full, please share that knowledge with me. Though I fear that either t
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What my insurance expects is me doing what can reasonably be expected from someone to mitigate damages. I'm expected to not drive while drunk.
Driving while drunk is not like a hurricane. There's nothing you can do about a hurricane, without unreasonable cost at least... You could build a concrete hurricane defense wall, But not in the 72 hours advance, And Insurance cannot require extra expenditures for coverage --- You are covered AS-IS.. Driving while drunk is Unlawful behavior that caused the
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Your insurance won't pay if you won't listen to telemarketers? Maybe you should think the implications of your position through a bit more carefully.
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Reductio ad absurdum? This early in the conversation?
Hello. (Score:3, Informative)
This is Lenny.
Just USA? (Score:3)
Is this a peculiarly American problem? I don't think I've ever had a robo-call in my life in Australia, unless you count the ones that connect you to a call-centre operator a second or two after you answer. SMS spam, yes. Plenty of charities begging, some sales calls that got past the "do not call" register, and the occasional overseas scam call. But always human, never a recording.
Do any counties other than the US - oh, and presumably Canada, have this problem?
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I don't think I've ever had a robo-call in my life in Australia, unless you count the ones that connect you to a call-centre operator a second or two after you answer.
Why wouldn't you count those? Those certainly are robocalls. Predictive dialers make the call and then pass you off to the first available human scam artist.
If you're thinking only of the "call and play a recorded message" abuses as "robocalls", then you ought to know that predictive dialers/human scum are even worse than recorded messages. Getting calls that immediately hang up on you because there wasn't a human ready to patch in is worse than the stock recorded message.
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"we have never had a per-call tarrif for local calls from landlines"
For small values of never. I'm old enough to remember the pages of tariffs in the front of the phone book, which could even vary from one central office to another.
phone numbers are transient and disposable (Score:3)
with sim cards being easy to buy, its not hard to change your number often.
I've gotton on some prank lists where I was getting nuissance calls.
I dropped that number. buh-BYE. end of story.
phone is not even the main channel of comms anymore. 20 yrs ago it was. today, everyone has a more perm email and phone numbers can, and do, change. I'm and older guy and even I am ok with throwing away phone numbers and restarting, should I get on a 'annoy this guy by calling and not taking no' list.
we can also have devices that whitelist and let ring thru. when I had a landline, I used modem callerid and a unix daemon. now, most people just have cell phone #'s and the app I use is 'mrnumber' (yeah, lol). it lets me put a select switch between calls and me.
this is what it comes to. like online ads, its a war and we users are left to fend for ourselves. at least we now have good tools to defend ourselves from.
the part about the gov granting itself more rights, yeah, well, that's fully expected given the trajectory the US (and ROW) is headed. sad but its not unexpected. and since we have no control over our gov's (no one, anywhere in the world, does) we are stuck with what they all grew into. this crap where the system rewards itself and cares nothing about the people, themselves.
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"its not hard to change your number often"
Unless there are people that you *do* want to receive calls from.
"we can also have devices that whitelist and let ring thru"
But if everyone *else* is changing their numbers frequently, how do you know what numbers to whitelist?
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"we can also have devices that whitelist and let ring thru"
What happens when the robocallers realize that we are whitelisting, and start using 'confirmed lists of valid phone numbers to call', then start a brute-force attack with caller IDs working on making 10 billion calls to each phone number: if we don't answer (Each time spoofing a different incremental Caller ID, in the hopes that they figure out one of the whitelisted CIDs and then suddenly get through) ?
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with sim cards being easy to buy, its not hard to change your number often.
I've gotton on some prank lists where I was getting nuissance calls.
I dropped that number. buh-BYE. end of story.
I'm assuming that you don't live in the USA and that you don't work in IT. Both apply to me. This is not as easy to do as you claim for a lot of us. First of all, while you can buy SIM cards in the USA, it's difficult. US mobile telephone service isn't really setup to work this way. Everybody expects you to sign a contract with a carrier for a certain number of years. Just walking down to some local electronics store and buying a SIM card off the shelf is not at all how things work in the USA. You ha
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I'm assuming that you don't live in the USA and that you don't work in IT. Both apply to me. This is not as easy to do as you claim for a lot of us. First of all, while you can buy SIM cards in the USA, it's difficult. US mobile telephone service isn't really setup to work this way. Everybody expects you to sign a contract with a carrier for a certain number of years. Just walking down to some local electronics store and buying a SIM card off the shelf is not at all how things work in the USA. You have to go to carriers to get SIM cards here and those aren't really setup to be pay as you. You can do that sort of thing if you're willing to use crap disposable phones like with Tracfone, but not so much if you actually have a good phone.
I'm assuming that you don't live in the USA either, because your facts are way out of date. I just ordered a couple of new SIMs off of Amazon yesterday to swap out on phones.
Here are a couple of examples.
Captcha (Score:2)
I can't wait until my phone has a captcha. "To make this phone ring, please type in the answer to this question: Which Star Trek movie is the best?"
So private prisons are exempt too? (Score:2)
So private prisons are exempt too? After all, they are government contractors.
Because it's pretty popular to use prisoners for outbound telesales calls...
"Sovereign Immunity" unamerican (Score:3)
While entrenched in British Common Law, the very notion of "soverreign immunity" is completely contradictory with the founding principles of the United States. The idea was whatever powers (sovereigns) were subject to limitations.
To now claim "sovereign immunity" is merely a complete about-face, and very likely corrupt.
Exempt both ways? (Score:2)
Does this mean we can do robocalls TO members of the government? They are exempt.
Of course not. Laws apply to plebs, not to the ruling elite.
Congress isn't people (Score:2)
I'm more concerned about other exemptions (Score:2)
.
While it is always an easy target to go after the Federal government, I have had zero, absolutely zero, robo-calls from the Federal government in the past 5 years. Zero.
Yet, I have had countless political calls (calls from/about Trump seem to be horribly numerous this past month). I have had numerous calls from charities and also market research organizations. But not one from the Federal government.
So I have to wonder why is t
People still answer unknown phone numbers? (Score:2)
Hell, I have my phone set to not even ring for anyone not in my contacts list. Everyone else can leave a message, and I'll add them as a contact if I actually want to speak with them in the future.
IRS calling - pay attention !! (Score:2)
I guess I should start taking those "this is the IRS calling about case # 123556" threatening legal action. I'll pay my past due taxes immediately as requested via bitcoin and make sure "the situation totally unfolds" in a good way.
Entire Federal Government Exempt From all Laws (Score:2)
FTFY
Whether it is ATF agents smuggling weapons to Mexican drug cartels, OTS employees helping banks back-date deposits to cover up insolvency, James Clapper lying before Congress, Lois Lerner destroying evidence pursuant to a Congressional investigation, etc. government employees operate beyond the rule of law.
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Nope: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... [huffingtonpost.com]
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I don't. I mean, I take off my shoes, but do you get nudie scanned and freedom-groped? I'm hardly a congressperson.
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As for politicians and board of directors, they never use public planes so they never go through airport security.
Hate to mess up a good rant, but... [wikipedia.org]:
United States Congressman Larry McDonald from Georgia, who at the time was also the second president of the conservative John Birch Society, was on the flight. Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Senator Steve Symms of Idaho, and Representative Carroll Hubbard of Kentucky were aboard sister flight KAL 015, which flew 15 minutes behind KAL 007...
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The claim was that politicians and other important folks never take commercial flights, which I just demonstrated to be false, you dope.
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And yes, I've a bit of a morbid fascination with air disasters, probably because flying gives me the willies and yet I do it anyhow.
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Just out of curiosity, what are the proper channels?
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Mostly 'cause his rules make even LESS sense than the crap our government spits out . Ever read Deuteronomy 14 or Exodus 34? That shit makes copyright law looks sensible and sane, and our drug laws are very non-arbitrary in comparison.
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I guess that would be covered by Deuteronomy 14:3, the "don't eat abomination" part.
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I guess that would be covered by Deuteronomy 14:3, the "don't eat abomination" part.
So Canadian Geese are out then?
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Pretty much Canadian anything is out.
Re:why are contractors included? (Score:4, Insightful)
the government is exempt when it is performing government business.
since much of that business is contracted out, it makes sense to also exempt those actually carrying it out.
this should not be a hard concept, even for an AC.
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"Also, government is allowed to lock up anybody who protests against trump deporting all muslims and non jewish circumcised men"
Please. Stop drooling.