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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
An eight-year investigation into Dish Networks, a direct-broadcast satellite service provider, resulted Monday in the largest fine ever levied for privacy invasion, with Dish facing a $280m bill.
The US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission brought the case after multiple complaints that people trying to sell the pay-per-view TV provider's services were ignoring the Do Not Call registry and disturbing people who really didn't appreciate the interruption. After investigating the case, the FTC handed it to the DoJ, which filed suit in 2009.
"The National Do Not Call Registry is a popular federal program for the public to reduce the number of unwanted sales calls," said acting assistant attorney general Chad Readler of the Justice Department's Civil Division.
"This case demonstrates the Department of Justice's commitment to smart enforcement of consumer protection laws, and sends a clear message to businesses that they must comply with the Do Not Call rules."
In a 475-page ruling [PDF], US District Judge Sue Myerscough of the Central District of Illinois detailed how Dish Network had run a telemarketing campaign to persuade new customers to sign up and also to call former customers in an attempt to convince them to resubscribe.
Initially Dish ran the calling systems itself, but then outsourced some of the work to retail third-party call centers. Some of these played fast and loose with the rules and called people on the federal Do-Not-Call list who had specified that they didn't want to receive telemarketing calls.
"Dish's reckless decision to use anyone with a call center without any vetting or meaningful supervision demonstrates a disregard for the consuming public," the judge wrote.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @07:43PM (5 children)
The fact that the federal government is involved, and that the federal government's own solution didn't work very well, and that the result is a massive fine and court case, all proves that the entire communications system is a total fuckup.
Thanks government.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @08:21PM (4 children)
No the true problem is that a communication system that does not give the destination of a call more control over who can call them than the originator of a call will not be acceptable anymore going forwards. I should be allowed at the protocol level to mark numbers/addresses/contacts/whatever I do not wish to receive calls from (think error 403 forbidden or 405 method not allowed), design UX to make managing these blocked numbers the user's responsibility and leave it. Anything less is only going to be a rehash of this exact same problem all over again. It spread to spam email, it spread to spam text messages, it will eventually spread to the myriads of alternative communication services that are available now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @09:28PM (3 children)
What is wrong with you people?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @12:45AM (2 children)
The grand parent had a subject that mentioned technical problems, but the content of said post was a shitting on what the gov did in response to a fundamental flaw in the system. There was a subject content disagreement. I was responding to the content not the subject.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @02:48AM (1 child)
The problem is technical.
The telecommunications system is government trash, and that's why there was both a political/legal solution (which didn't work), and that's why there is even more political/legal action.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday June 08 2017, @05:48PM
Why is the telecommunication system, specifically government.. trash?