In a bid to safeguard consumers’ privacy rights, the Government is set to allow interception of phone calls of telephone subscribers making complaints against pesky tele callers.
In its recommendations on the proposed Draft Right to Privacy Bill 2012, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has suggested addition of a new clause which says, “Interception of telephone calls ordered by telegraph authority for inquiry/investigation in respect of complaints regarding unsolicited commercial communication or misuse of telecom network.”
This clause may look objectionable to people as it lets the concerned Government authority to tap intercept ones phone and intrude his privacy. Some experts even feel that this could be misused.
But the Department of Telecom has argued that the new sub-clause is essential as without interception one cannot establish whether a call made to a phone subscriber is unsolicited commercial communication or not. “Further, in case of misuse of telecom network, interception of telephone calls may be required,” it suggested.
However, in a great reprieve to consumers, the Department of Telecom has said that telephone directories may also be included in the category of unsolicited commercial communication as they contain personal data of subscribers like phone number, name and address and hence inclusion of this item is essential so that publication of directory is not considered as infringement on privacy of an individual.
The department has also proposed that every unsolicited commercial call by a telemarketer should invite a penalty of Rs 20,000. In addition, it has said that Government should increase penalty for unauthorised or illegal phone interception to Rs 2 crore from Rs 1 lakh charged at present.
Currently, under Telecom Regulatory Authority of India regulation on pesky calls and SMSes, a penalty of Rs 25,000 has to be deducted from deposit of registered telemarketers on first violation. The penalty increases step by step and goes up to Rs 2.5 lakh at the sixth violation. However, the menace of pesky calls and SMSes has been more from unregistered telemarketers.
But the new proposed regulation includes the unregistered telemarketers too. According to the new clause, both registered and unregistered telemarketers would be blacklisted for making unsolicited calls and SMSes. The blacklisted telemarketers will lose their telecom connection and will not get a new number for two years.