| Comment Number: | OL-103376 |
| Received: | 11/28/2004 10:35:32 AM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Wortman |
| State: | MD |
| Subject: | Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
The United States in general must recognize the privacy of the individual and must hold that privacy above all else. EVERY individual should be given an "Opt-in" option for ANY type of advertising, especially telemarketing. It is ridiculous to have an "Opt-out" policy here in the states. If telemarketing agencies and companies want to market their products - they can do it the old-fashioned way - television. I certainly do not want companies calling my private phone number just because I subcribe to a particular magazine or donated to a particular charity. If I wanted to be contacted by them - then I would have taken the step to give them a call. The phrase "Established business relationship" is ludicrous - legislation needs to include a more specific boundaries - such as "written and signed permission from the private individual". Acceptable "written" proof could include a check-box on a web-submission for a credit-card sale - this would imply a signature as they are needed for most credit sales, a letter written by the individual, or a form submitted with a donation or other sales to the company/organization. When designing legislation - one needs to examine the number of ways that the regulation could be misinterpreted or stretched. I hate the fact that I have to keep an unlisted number in order to avoid calls from telemarketers - and even then, I still get them once in a while from the "random" dialers. I miss the days when you could actually go to the city of a friend and "look them up" in the phone book if you did not know their number. Where is this country going such that we have to maintain such a high-level of privacy just to avoid being inundated with phone calls. Before getting an unlisted number, it had gotten to the point where I was receiving one telemarketer's phone call a day, sometimes more! That's ridiculous! As a busy professional - I don't have time to deal with that and normally ended up being curt or verbally abusive to the person calling in order to get rid of them faster - this is not appropriate. I should not have to be mean in order to get the telemarketer to give up and let me go about my business. I just hate being disturbed unnecessarily in the evenings. I thank you for your time and hope to see appropriate and privacy maintaining legislation in the future.