Information Technology Acts Essay
Any Name
BIS/220 #1
March 2, 2011
Your Instructor

Information technology is forever advancing, especially when it involves telecommunications and protecting consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls. In the late 1980s I acquired my first customer service representative position with a major telecommunications company. My job was to contact “cold call” customers to offer products and services on behalf of their Account Representative. There was not a customer database for telemarketing at that time; the information technology tool used consisted of a list of business names and telephone numbers. This information was retrieved and available for anyone who chose to purchase from list service to use with the intent of telemarketing. Although this appeared to be an unethical business practice, it was legal because if the consumers name and numbers were sold to list services. Something had to be done to prevent unsolicited phone calls and to protect consumers from these unethical business practices.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 1991 was implemented to regulate unwanted advertising calls and fax telemarketer calls. This was necessary because consumers would receive prerecorded and unidentified calls from companies in which they have had no prior business dealings with all times of the day and evening on both their landline and fax line. According to Senator Fritz Hollings (2009), the bill’s original sponsor, said, “This bill is purely targeted at those calls that are the source of the tremendous amount of consumer complaints at the FCC and at the State commissions around the country—the telemarketing calls placed to the home.” Id. (Emphasis added.) In passing the TCPA, Congress relied on surveys wherein consumers responded that the two most annoying things were (1) “phone calls from people selling things” and (2) “phone calls from computers trying to sell something”. (Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, H.R. Rep. 102-317, November 15, 1991, at p. 11.)
Companies used auto dialers to reach consumers to solicit business. The Federal Communications Communication (FCC) made it so that company’s representatives had to identify themselves, the person or company he or she were calling on behalf of and his or her address. Telemarketers also had restrictions on the time that they could call, which stopped the prime time calls. There are other provisions were implemented under the TCPA 1991; however the calls did not completely cease and additional measures had to be taken to again curve the unethical telemarketing practices. The FCC provides a website with a guide that provides a complete background and many interesting facts regarding the TCPA 1991.
To provide additional protection for the consumer from unethical and fraudulent telemarketing practices, the Do Not Call Act (DNCA) was implemented in June 2003. The purpose was to allow residential consumers to add their numbers to the do not call registry where it would stop most of those unwanted telemarketing calls for a period of five years. The act does not prohibit calls from the following: nonprofit organizations, surveys, and bill collectors. Additionally, consumers can continue to receive calls up to 18 months after conducting business with a company unless they request not to receive calls. Telephone Company’s provided toll free numbers so that consumers could register their numbers on the registry and telemarketers initially had 90 days to cease calling that number; that has since changed. In June 2005, telemarketers have 31 days to comply. In recent years, improvements have been made to the DNCA that requires new telephone numbers to renew their phone numbers once to maintain their number on the list.
In conclusion, while the above mentioned acts are two cohesive tools to prevent unethical telemarketing calls, consumers are able to identify the originating source prior to answering the call. With the implementation of caller-id, consumers can see who is calling and determine if they want to answer the incoming call. I personally have experienced this and have called the company back in efforts to inform them that I have had no business dealings with them, henceforward to remove my number form their list. While the intent of both acts is to protect consumers, businesses should be closely monitored on how they conduct telemarketing and advertising.

References
Ellis, M. E. (2009), ABC’S of the TPCA, Part I. Retrieved from http://www.ellislawgrp.com/article09part1.html
FCC Unwanted Telephone Marketing. Calls Retrieved from http://www.fcc.gov/guides/unwanted-telephone-marketing-calls
National Do Not Call Registry. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National Do Not Call Registry