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FCC will publish telemarketer phone numbers to help you block them

The Federal Communications Commission has said that protecting consumer privacy is one of its biggest priorities, and its latest actions prove just that. The communications bureau is going to publish the phone numbers of telemarketers on a weekly basis in an effort to help you preemptively block those annoying calls saying you've won a cruise or some other outlandish claim that might require forking over your credit card info. The idea here is that by releasing these regularly and opening up the data, it'll help software developers build automated apps and the like for heading the calls off before they happen, and improve tech that already exists. This is a natural extension of June's ruling regarding carriers blocking spam numbers, and the FCC says it's still working on a way to extend that to landlines. Want a peek at the first sets of digits? The Verge found the first list.

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