So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Edward]

So which branch of the gov't / law enforcement is responsible for policing, enforcing and prosecuting offenders of the DNC list? Passing a law is all fine and dandy, but it also has to be enforced.

US privacy law isn't my area, so I'll defer to Bamaboots on this one.

Of course, as with any law you might care to mention, the devil is always in the enforcement.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I bought a new hairdryer in usual electronic-chainstore, some minutes ago, because the hinge-handle of my seven years old hairdryer gave up, the last days. The new ones got seemingly not more hinge-handles, so I think, this didn't approve, as you can see on my old.

But the good (or bad) joke: 14,99 Euro and this Philips is one of the normal "sufficient" middle-class device-quality, not the cheaper crap!

These are the things with much too low prices for good middle-class quality.

But, on the other side, probably typical market-economy. Very simple and longlasting old-fashion electric-devices >low demand in the whole population > low prices. And my new got no hinge-handle, which could brake.

 

[Fading Fast]

Federal Trade Commission

Thank you, Well it's time for them to get on it then - where have they been these last several years as enforcement has been sliding or the cold callers have been getting more aggressive for several years now.

 

[ChrisB]

Lately the most dangerous call is one where the first thing they say is "Can you hear me?" What they want is to record your voice saying "yes." With that, they can get all sorts of stuff concerning you. I no longer answer the phone. They can leave a message and if it's someone I want to talk to I call back. Not otherwise.

"Unproven" according to Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/can-you-hear-me-scam/

 

[LizzieMaine]

The real problem in enforcing laws governing telemarketing is that so many of the call center contractors are based overseas -- and thus are not subject to US law.

 

[Haversack]

Trenchfriend schreibt: "Is there disturbing föhn (blow-drier)-weather in the US, too?"

A couple of regional names for that type of wind are Chinook winds, (northern prairie states and Canadian provinces), and Santa Ana winds, (in Southern California).

 

[vitanola]

Thank you, Well it's time for them to get on it then - where have they been these last several years as enforcement has been sliding or the cold callers have been getting more aggressive for several years now.

The FTC has been largely defunded by Congress because the supervision of bad business practices is, after all, considered to be "anti-business", and is not popular with large donors of Dark Money.

 

[Fading Fast]

The FTC has been largely defunded by Congress because the supervision of bad business practices is, after all, considered to be "anti-business", and is not popular with large donors of Dark Money.

I am doing this from memory - pretty sure, but my memory has failed me before - but I believe under Obama the FTC budget was increased - and the agency was certainly more active in the telecom space in those years - and this DNC problem has been going on for years. Trump has proposed cutting it (I believe) but even that hasn't happened yet as they are still running the gov't under the last Obama numbers (changes might be happening now, past month or so, but again, the problem of FTC enforcement of DNC is years old).

Edit add: a quick internet search shows the FTC budget in FY2016 was ~$309 million up ~$16 million from FY 2105 (source: Federal Trade Commission Congressional Budget Justification Report)

 

[vitanola]

Yes, but it never has recovered from the cuts made during the last administration but one. It has been in many ways toothless since the early 1980's.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ I tried for 15 minutes (and, then, decided to get back to my real job), but all I could find was qualitative comments and not perfect data and graphs about the FCC's budget under Bush and Obama which - based on what I read from various official-looking sources (but who knows) - is that despite proposals to cut it, the FCC's budget increased over the Bush years (might or might not have gone down marginally in one or two years, but was up over the eight Bush years).

If this is correct (it might not be, but it is consistent with what I remember), then I'm not sure the FCC ever had big cuts to recover from. And it was (based on a graph I saw) dramatically increased under Obama and to spending levels well-above the Bush era. This argues that if there was a year or two of cuts under Bush, the FCC budget total was not only made back up by the end of the Bush Administration but it was then increased aggressively during the Obama years.

Please understand, all I did was read several articles and look at several charts etc., from various sources - if I'm wrong, I will gladly acknowledge so. I will add, that my memory is that the FCC budget was threatened a lot under Bush, but really wasn't reduced and actually increased over his eight years. Also, my memory is pretty strong that Obama then increased its budget much more and well over the old Bush levels. But again, this last paragraph is simply based on my imperfect memory.

 

[sheeplady]

I am wondering if it's a matter of a budget suited to the task. I imagine with the proliferation of telemarketing and online advertising they have their hands full.

You can increase a budget substantially, but it may not still be adequate if needs are high.

 

[Fading Fast]

I am wondering if it's a matter of a budget suited to the task. I imagine with the proliferation of telemarketing and online advertising they have their hands full.

You can increase a budget substantially, but it may not still be adequate if needs are high.

A fair point - and almost unknowable to those of us on the outside - but my informal review, as noted in my post, is that the FCC saw doubt digit percentage increases to its budget in a time of - in theory - budget austerity. It doesn't look at all like an agency that was being starved. But again, that doesn't directly address your point since a big increase from a severely underfunded level is still a challenge. (That said, as someone who has worked in the private sector his entire life - I would like to see some of the cost cutting, austerity, budget scrutiny of the private sector brought to our gov't that has way too many examples of waste that would never survive in the private sector.)

Also, Lizzie's point could be a big part of the problem ⇩

The real problem in enforcing laws governing telemarketing is that so many of the call center contractors are based overseas -- and thus are not subject to US law.

 

[ChrisB]

The devil is in the details. While the overall budget for an agency may increase, you need to find specifically what happened to the budget for enforcement within that agency.

 

[Edward]

The real problem in enforcing laws governing telemarketing is that so many of the call center contractors are based overseas -- and thus are not subject to US law.

The unlawful action is taking place in the US in effect.... the problem, as is usually the case, isn't making the law apply - that's easy - it is, as you say, enforcing it against a lawbreaker based overseas where their activity may well be legal (and thus they can't be extradited), and who has no assets or personnel based in the jurisdiction where the unlawful effect occurs. It's a constant problem online.

 

[vitanola]

We must remember, too that the operators of the legacy landline systems have been excruciatingly slow about adopting the technology which has been widely and successfully deployed by their own VoIP and cellular divisions, for they believe it to be in their best interest to encourage the rapid abandonment of the legacy copper network, and the extreme annoyance of robocalls is quite a strong push to move their customers to the more profitable cellular network.

 

[sheeplady]

We must remember, too that the operators of the legacy landline systems have been excruciatingly slow about adopting the technology which has been widely and successfully deployed by their own VoIP and cellular divisions, for they believe it to be in their best interest to encourage the rapid abandonment of the legacy copper network, and the extreme annoyance of robocalls is quite a strong push to move their customers to the more profitable cellular network.

A very important point. Almost every action taken by any large telecomm company is to dump their copper. They basically don't enter into any discussion with the government without putting the copper lines on the table.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ Genuinely not sure I'm following the above two posts as we don't have a land line and all our DNC issues are on our cellphones.

 

[vitanola]

Get yourself a "Handy Hannah" hairdryer, made by Morris Struhl. It will last you for the rest of your days, I think.

 

[vitanola]

⇧ Genuinely not sure I'm following the above two posts as we don't have a land line and all our DNC issues are on our cellphones.

If you haven't a landline, then you are not really familiar with the problems of robocalls.

In our household we have two cellular telephones (one AT&T, one Verizon), two VoIP lines (one Spectrum, one Vonage), and the legacy landline which my father had installed in August of 1961.

The cell phones and VoIP lines all use NOMOROBO technology, and have minimal problems with unwanted calls, perhaps one call per day.
The landline (which my father refuses to have disconnected in case one of his old friends, most of whom have passed on, tries to call him) received between twenty and thirty robocalls every day, despite being on the DNC list.

During the election season the number was closer to forty calls per day.

Most cell phone carriers (more or less) effectively protect their subscribers from this annoyance, or at least make a game attempt.

Not so for the providers of copper land line service.

 

[sheeplady]

Copper landlines are essentilly the lines that provide service to our very rural parts of the US. These are places often without other service- be it cell service, cable (including internet), etc. Essentially in these areas it is copper landlines or nothing. It is not profitable to update these lines to fiber... too few customers.

When Ma Bell was broken up in 1984, AT&T in particular got stuck with a lot of aging infrastructure. By aging, some of these lines date back to the 1950s, some before. The Bell System operated as a legal monopoly to provide service to these types of rural places... places where there is no competition because of lack of customers. They are a cost sink. A cost sink that at the time of MA Bell was acceptable because, monopoly.

When issues such as providing "universal broadband access" come up, these telecomm companies normally come up to the table with a "proposal" to provide such services, if (and only if), they can drop 2% of their customers on aging copper lines.

And noting that many of these places lack alternative communication services, this leaves them with zero communication avenues for EMS or business services. These aren't just rural areas that have only whittlers either, but are heavily agrictural or forested. A lot of our food comes from these areas. Maybe not such a good idea to keep them from selling it to us.