Victoria Williams
BIS/220
8/1/2014
Steven Rubin
Advances in Information Technology In today’s society, mostly everyone demands to be informed. Information’s necessity is at an all-time high. Information technology, (IT) has become a great part of our lives. According to Dictionary.com (2014), Information Technology is the development, implementation, and maintenance of computer hardware and software systems to organize and communicate information electronically. Learning how information is stored and communicated through electronic devices is essential to understanding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991, as well as the Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003. The Do Not Call Implementation Act 2003 was incorporated due to the lack of responsibility being held with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act 1991 laws. Advanced technologies aided and enabled each Act to be set in place, which allowed Congress and the Government to monitor consumer’s protection.
Telemarketers
We have all experienced those unwanted calls from telemarketers. People genuinely feel that all telemarketers want to sell them something that is of no value, and it’s never worth their time. Receiving calls on a daily basis can become rude in a sense, and some consumers might become irritated. Telemarketers use different types of messages, and computer generated calling lists to gain exclusive access to their consumers and business partners. Although telemarketer’s tactics can be overwhelming, there is still some benefit to this sort of sales marketing. Telemarketing can provide information on new products, and offers to available opportunities. The telemarketing business makes up a great percentage of the information based sales process. Perhaps the idea of implementing Acts in order to add guidance, and decrease ethical issues for both consumers and telemarketing professionals was a necessary approach.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 Controversy and complaint to the Federal Government and Congress over automated messages from telemarketers was an issue, and becoming a big problem fast. Consumers demands were not being met, and the calls were becoming inappropriate. As noted by the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISION (n.d.), “Congress first passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in 1991 in response to consumer concerns about the growing number of unsolicited telephone marketing calls to their homes and the increasing use of automated and prerecorded messages” (para. 1). With this new law, solicitors now have to provide certain information when they call. The information that should be provided includes their name, where they are calling from or the company they represent, and how they can be reached. Even with the law available for consumer protection, solicitors often still found ways around it. Calls were still coming through. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act had time restrictions. Solicitors couldn’t call before eight o’clock a.m., or after nine o’clock p.m. However, this too was hard for them to abide by. Despite these restrictions, telemarketing complaints continue to rise and there is an increasing need to provide consumers with the ability to opt-out of telemarketing calls (108TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF RESPRESENTATIVES, 2003).
The Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003 The demand that telemarketers be held responsible for their actions was ever increasing. Consumers felt something had to be done. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) noticed technology was on the rise, and telemarketers were even finding new ways of getting to their consumers. Email was the most popular, and consumers were complaining of being “scammed”. Their personal information was being used for things they didn’t approve. When the house report was created for the Do Not Call Implementation Act it implemented that consumers would be able to place their name on a Do-Not-Call