Small indications are beginning to surface that the citizenry is fed up with their privacy being invaded in the name of streamlined commerce without tangible benefit. We are tired of being interrupted by telemarketing calls. We are refusing to give our phone numbers to store clerks. We are demanding unpublished telephone numbers. We are becoming cautious about providing Social Security numbers. A few are going so far as to sort their trash. A handful are using encryption tools for secure email on the Internet.
It’s possible, if difficult, to stop telemarketers cold in their tracks. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 allows you to demand that telemarketers remove you from their call lists. If telemarketers continue to call you after you’ve requested to be removed from their call lists, they can be subject to substantial fines.
At least that’s the theory. In reality, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act was weakened by lobbying groups representing telemarketers. The statute doesn’t even apply to telemarketing calls to businesses, for example. According to the law, if you demand to be put on a do not call list and the calls continue, you can file suit for US$500. Even if you sue, however, the statute provides what’s called an “affirmative defense” for telemarketers. Currently, all the telemarketer has to do is tell the judge that it has implemented appropriate procedures to prevent violation of the law. Unless you can prove otherwise, the case is automatically dismissed.
My wife and I have found that much better results can be obtained simply by demanding to be added to the telemarketer’s “do not call” list and sending invoices for subsequent infractions at our standard billing rate. Our invoices aren’t always paid, but the calls stop very quickly.
When the rights of personal privacy and the rights of information access begin to overlap into an information eclipse, a wide variety of possible results appears. The darkest area of the eclipsing bodies—the portions that actually overlap—forms an area ripe for censorship. And make no mistake; censorship occurs in all spheres, both public and private. The Constitution only prohibits censorship in the public sphere. Could it be that it’s time for that to change?
