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posted by Fnord666 on Monday May 20 2019, @06:05AM   Printer-friendly

Submitted via IRC for AnonymousLuser

Ajit Pai proposes new rule that would allow carriers to block robocalls

On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission announced a new measure that would grant mobile phone carriers new abilities to block the growing number of unwanted robocalls.

The new rule would make it easier for carriers, like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, to automatically register their customers for call-blocking technology. As of right now, customers have to opt-in on their own. It would also allow customers to block calls coming from phone numbers that are not on their contacts list. Commissioners are expected to vote on the measure at their June 6th meeting.

"Allowing call blocking by default could be a big benefit for consumers who are sick and tired of robocalls," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said. "By making it clear that such call blocking is allowed, the FCC will give voice service providers the legal certainty they need to block unwanted calls from the outset so that consumers never have to get them."

[...] A majority of the US Senate already backs legislation from Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Ed Markey (D-MA) that would make it easier for the FCC to seek financial penalties from robocallers and provide both regulators and law enforcement additional tools to combat these unwanted and illegal calls.

Members in the House of Representatives like Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) also have their own anti-robocalling legislation that differs from what's been proposed in the Senate, but it includes some similar language, like increasing the length of time the FCC has to find and go after bad actors.


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday May 21 2019, @11:33AM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 21 2019, @11:33AM (#845767)

    Yes AC I believe you're correct, this sounds very likely that the purpose of this dog and pony show is to sell phone numbers to other corporations.

    My guess is rather than laboriously generating a list manually, they'll harvest your call logs and market a new feature where you get distinctive or only incoming calls from numbers you've previously called. With a side dish of we'll sell this information to god only knows who else in the fine print.

    My guess is we're coming up on election season and a secret list of everybody who ever called congressman so and so for any reason will be offered for quite a premium. Along with timestamps to correlate activism and such.

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