Australian Do Not Call Register 252
green-e writes "Looks like us Aussies are finally introducing a national 'Do Not Call' register. Under the plan all telemarketers would be banned from calling homes after 8pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends. Companies that call a household on the register could face fines of up to $220,000 (AU), which could be legislated early next year. About time something like this should be set up. How effective has it been in the US ?"
As an Australian I can honestly say (Score:4, Insightful)
This is awesome and I hope it's enforced thoroughly.
Sure it's going to cost some people some jobs - but lately the calls have been coming from other countries anyhow.
Marketing is invasive enough as it is, my number at home is not to be called for any old reason - this is just plain RUDE, 30 years ago you wouldn't dream of this crap happening.
Only not after 8pm? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How effective has it been in the US ? (Score:2, Insightful)
So I avoid:
- Prize give away forms
- Pretty much any freebee that requests name, number &/or address
- I make sure when my banks or credit companies send out requests to share my information to 3rd parties, I clearly reply back with a firm NO.
It's kind of like e-mail privacy, only since it's much easier to track the b@stards down, they really do have to prove a prior business relationship or consent given to be called.
Re:As an Australian I can honestly say (Score:5, Insightful)
1) There ARE fewer calls. Fewer companies seem to be willing to risk the fines or pay for the lists.
2) Companies seem to love to play the "We have a relationship" card much more than they used to. They go out of their way to make sure I know that.
3) Those that call are much more aggressive. They are using automatic systems to make calls more and more. I seldom get a person directly on the other end. Even though I only get a few calls a month, it is for this and other reasons that I'm ditching my landline and going to voip only.
With voip it is both easy to have multiple phone numbers that can be changed quickly. Further it's much easier to filter by caller id and completely control how each call is handled. f you don't know the secret personal number which I can change at the drop of a hat, you won't get to talk directly to me ever. I have separate permanent numbers for places I do business with so that they will ALWAYS have to leave a message. Those numbers can take ALL the junk calls they want to dish out because they will NEVER ring a phone in my house. Only my personal voip numbers ring a phone and only if your number hasn't been blacklisted.
Voip is to phones what email is to postal mail. Your physical address no longer has any meaning and it's easy to set it up so that you control what is coming and going based on how available you want to be.
"No cold calling" zones. (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's face it, if I want to buy something, I'll do it online or go out and get it. I'm not waiting for someone to come to me with a stack of encyclopedias.. or call me with an amazing offer whilst I'm halfway through my dinner..
Re:As an Australian I can honestly say (Score:4, Insightful)
I can see trouble ahead.
Re:As an Australian I can honestly say (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA:
Riiiiiiggght.... Market resarch companies on the list of exempted organisations?
I'm also quite sure that Politicians will be exempt from this.
And quite frankly - the one person I do not want spamming [theage.com.au] me is John Howard [theage.com.au] (lying Australian Prime minister)
This is the phone message he left on many peoples phones prior to the last election:
Think about it - will you trust a do-not-call register from a goverment with a prime minister willing to make marketing calls and send email spam through his son's company? [smh.com.au]
Re:As an Australian I can honestly say (Score:4, Insightful)
Then someone figured out that "market research" can also be used for marketing purposes. So the calls started coming back:
Sir, I'm doing a market survey. What do you think of the [em]Gazette[/em]'s new layout and extensive sports coverage?
The real solution is burn your phone.
Re:No phone, no problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Something else I'd love to see is a phone that has a memory slot (compact flash or memory stick or anything really) that you can put a card into either a) to expand the amount of memory available for saving messages and caller ID data or b) providing the primary means of storage for messages and caller ID data (in this case, the phone would probably come with some small-ish 32/64 MB card). Messages would be saved in MP3 format (or OGG even if the licensing allowed it).
I think if I didn't actually use the landline so much I'd probably ditch it and go 100% cellular...
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:As an Australian I can honestly say (Score:3, Insightful)
Almost any pbx can be setup so you can just call it and access it directly if you know where and what to dial to gain access. That's always setup and my "loved ones" know how to use it. Thus, people I trust implicitly will have no problem as they will know the correct sequence of numbers to dial to ring any or all extensions in my house from any number, even a blacklisted one.
Yes, of course, so could a savy telemarketer, but he'd have to break some laws and quite a sweat to do it. I doubt even the most persistant telemarketer will try calling thousands of times to the same residence attempting to discover which extension gains access and which pin codes get you in.
But really to be accessible you need to have a cell phone. I had one for a while, but I didn't like it for a variety of reasons so I got rid of it. If I still had one, however, I could integrate it easily into the pbx and then would never have to give my cell phone number to anyone. But, I digress. So, oh my god, we live day to day with the everpresent fear that we MIGHT NOT be able to reach each other in case of an "emergency".
That's why we have 911 operators you know, so there is someone you can call in an emergency who is trained to help you out. I question whether any situation that doesn't warrant calling 911 is actually an emergency.
Re:Aussies, be careful (Score:2, Insightful)
But if calling your house is 'invading your property,' and I don't have the right to do so, aren't you implying that nobody has the right to telephone you without your express permission?
I'm not the parent commenter, and I'm not a Libertarian, but I would say the answer to that question is "yes." No one has the right to call me without my permission. If I give my phone number to someone else, that may be reasonably construed as my granting permission for that individual to call me. If someone gets my number by looking it up in a book, they have no right to call me as I never granted permission. If a person calls me on the phone that I bought and my answering the phone results in airtime charges, I feel I'm within my rights to demand that the person pay me for the use of my property, airtime and personal time to talk to me (although I've never actually done that... but that's because I rarely answer calls which originate at a number I don't recognize).
Again, speaking as a non-libertarian, my understanding of libertarianism is that laws should be passed to protect people's personal and property rights as well as privacy. This means that libertarians can support laws which make theft and burglary illegal. I think a law that creates a do-not-call list which makes it illegal for people to use my property without my permission is completely consistent with that view.