| Comment Number: | OL-112513 |
| Received: | 12/30/2004 1:23:34 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Jeff Mercer |
| State: | NC |
| Subject: | Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Greetings. As a citizen who values his privacy and already feels it is severely jeopardized in our modern society, I oppose this modification to the Talemarketing Sales Rule (aka the 'Do-Not-Call' system). I feel it would create a significant loophole in the primary purpose of the TSR; namely to limit solicitation calls to citizens who do not wish to receive them. There are already significant exceptions to these rules (i.e. non-profits, political canidates, companies with established relationships). And in fact, the standards for 'an established business relationship' are vague. The speed and depth at which personal data is collected from individuals in our society is truely staggering, and occurs at all levels (i.e. business, medical, entertainment, government, etc). It becomes trivial for a company to claim a business relationship simply because of a previous phone call made to inquire about pricing or store hours. The success of the Do-Not-Call registry can be put down to two critical factors: a) An exceptionally large number of citizens do NOT want to be solicited by telephone b) The FTC's new rules and registry were implemented with enough "teeth" to be useful These modifications would simply undo much of the benefit seen by the Do-Not-Call registry. And that would mean a great deal of time and taxpayer money went to waste. If nothing else, we can't justify the waste of tax funds. I am available for further commentary if there is any need or interest.