Today's Internet or World Wide Web is being over regulated. But, are you being taken for a ride, are you lead to believe that Governments World Wide are creating new legislation for your benefit or are there underlying factors that these laws are more beneficial to Governments and big business? First we had the Can-Spam and other laws passed regulating the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail, that contains false or deceptive subject information, or that is sent from invalid e-mail addresses, but for me, my inbox still seems to always be full of junk mail. How many people have actually been fined or imprisoned. The same can be said of downloading of music files from the Internet avoiding the music Industry copy rights and Musicians fees. There seems to have been more individuals caught than the sites that illegally provided the music downloads. Search engines have the ability to track anyone who does a search and is also registered for a service at that search engine. If you use the AOL search engine and also use an AOL email account, the tracking cookie could track your surfing online and that information could be sold for commercial gain and be accessed by law enforcement agencies in theory. In Pennsylvania last week there were two separate lawsuits accusing a Florida travel promoter and its telemarketer of ignoring prior warnings and illegally contacting nearly 200 Pennsylvania consumers who had officially registered on the state's "no call" list. The complaints came from consumers located in 13 Pennsylvania counties. The firm of Telemarketers when asked by individuals who had registered their name and phone number on the "No Call" list said: 1. They did not see the consumers name on the "no call" list. 2. They were following up on a package that they had mailed to the consumer when in reality they did not send the consumer a package. 3. They must have dialed the consumer in error, sorry. The "No Call" list must be checked by telemarketers and in theory if a registered individuals name or phone number came up on the computer list that the telemarketer was about to call, it should be easy enough to skip on to the next person. You can learn more and register your cell phone or home phone number with the "Do Not Call" registry for a period of 5 years. There is no fee to register. https://www.donotcall.gov As of January 1, 2005, telemarketers and sellers are required to search the registry at least once every 31 days and drop from their call lists the phone numbers of consumers who have registered. https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov Telemarketers pay a fee to obtain the list of local, State wide or U.S. Do Not Call lists. The list for up to five area codes is free. The annual fee is forty dollars per area code of list data (after five), with a maximum annual fee of eleven thousand dollars for the entire U.S. database. For a telemarketer to phone a person listed on the no call list it is the same as sending unsolicited email. Both are illegal. Registering and purchasing the do not call list is much cheaper and safer than not doing so. If you intend to phone everyone in your local area code to promote your amazing new widget. Don't do it until you have registered as a telemarketer and obtained the list of not to call people in your calling area. If you have purchased Leads which legally have to include time and date stamp, IP address etc to comply with Government email Laws and Acts, you are able to phone them. But do introduce yourself, your company and the product or service in a clear and honest way or you could fall fowl of the many Consumer Acts that are also in place. Since the 911 terrorism incidence, your privacy on the Internet, phone and other forms of communication is being monitored or at least the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can legally tap your phone and intercept your email. One piece of legislation that is being debated both in the Senate and the House of Representatives is "The Patriot Act" as a good part of this Act is due for renewal at the end of this year. Portions up for renewal include those sections regarding computer hackers, sharing information gained through Wire Taping, Internet Service providers to hand over customer information and records in times of possible emergencies and for the Police to listen in on communications as thought necessary and court orders if there is a possibility case of terrorism suspected. The Patriot Act, (great choice of name) was created to give authorities more powers in times of terrorism but goes way further than that! I believe this act is necessary in this day and age when it comes to threats to National Security but, where does this leave your privacy? As consumers, citizens and business owners we all have rights, its just a pity that there are a small number of fanatics and idiots out there that spoil it for the rest of us. May you have a safe and secure week. |
