For years, consumers have warred with telemarketers for ringing their landline phones at all hours of the day.
Pretty soon, though, they might find their mobile voicemail under the same sort of assault — that is, if the U.S. Republican Party and others have their way.
The GOP’s leading campaign and fundraising arm, the Republican National Committee, has quietly thrown its support behind a proposal at the Federal Communications Commission that would pave the way for marketers to auto-dial consumers’ cellphones and leave them prerecorded voicemail messages — all without ever causing their devices to ring.
Under current federal law, telemarketers and others, like political groups, aren’t allowed to launch robocall campaigns targeting cellphones unless they first obtain a consumer’s written consent.
But businesses stress that it’s a different story when it comes to “ringless voicemail” — because it technically doesn’t qualify as a phone call in the first place. In their eyes, that means they shouldn’t need a customer or voter’s permission if they want to auto-dial mobile voicemail inboxes in bulk pre-made messages about a political candidate, product or cause. And they want the FCC to rule, once and for all, that they’re in the clear.
Their argument, however, has drawn immense opposition from consumer advocates.
“I think it’s unfortunate that there’s a push by any political party to reduce the protections in [the robocall rules] for cellphones,” said Margot Freeman Saunders, who serves as senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center.
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https://www.recode.net/2017/5/23/15681158/political-campaign-robocall-ringless-voicemail-without-ringing-cellphone-republicanShoved this one in politics rather than tech because it's needs people phoning their congresscritters and saying nope.
