DoNotCall
Latest
Sprint fined $7.5 million for violating your 'Do Not Call' requests
Sprint's bank account is going to be a bit lighter thanks to the FCC's recent announcement that the telco has failed to comply with customer "do-not-call" requests. The Now Network has to pay a $7.5 million fine (the largest ever) for violating your pleas for its unwanted phone-and-text telemarketing to stop, with acting chief of the enforcement bureau saying the settlement "leaves no question that protecting consumer privacy remains a top priority." What's more, the carrier also has to follow a two-year plan to ensure that it keeps following government requirements to protect said privacy. This follows a 2011 settlement that cost Sprint $400,000. Back then, it said that the do-not-call violations were the result of a server failing to process the consumer requests. This time, Sprint tells CNET that the errors were of the "technical and inadvertent human" variety, and that there's been a significant capital investment to ensure they don't happen again in the future. [Image credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images]
India caps text messages to curb telemarketing, Desi teens plot mutiny
SMS-based telemarketing is a serious problem in India -- so serious, in fact, that the government has decided to crack down in a pretty severe way. As of this week, every Indian mobile user or company is allowed to send only 100 text messages per day, as part of a new anti-spam initiative from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The move is just the latest in a series of campaigns to combat a boom in aggressive telemarketing that, according to some, borders on harassment. Authorities say spam phone calls have already declined significantly since 2007, when the government instituted a national "do not call" registry, yet the problem persists, with many users complaining of receiving commercial texts during the wee hours of the night. Regulators seem confident that these new rules will go a long way toward solving this riddle, though some have been left wondering why India's millions of mobile subscribers should pay the price, rather than the spammers themselves. The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, is reporting that subcontinental telemarketers have already begun circumventing the new regulations by re-focusing their efforts on junk mail, ad-based Twitter feeds and other ways to be just as annoying as they ever were. [Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk]
FTC wants to fight tracking cookies with other cookies, create delicious sugary warfare
We're not sure that fighting fire with fire actually works outside of the metaphorical realm, but don't let us tell the FTC how to do its thing. The federal body, which recently told Google "it's all good" after the company apologized for stealing people's private infos, is now asking for social networking sites and browser developers to create a sort of "do not track" cookie system. If this cookie was present the sites would not capture a user's browsing habits and not deliver customized ads, a cookie that would be created and enabled by a simple browser button. As of now the FTC is not mandating anything, but did deliver this passive-aggressive threat: With respect to 'do not track,' we are giving companies a little time, but we'd like to see them work a lot faster in making consumer choice a lot easier. So there you have it: start playing nice, companies, or the FTC might possibly do something. Meanwhile, we might possibly eat the cute looking gingerbread man in the middle up there. He sure looks tasty. [Image courtesy of Fagles]
