Information Technology Acts
Jeff Coufal
BIS/220
11-07-2012
Steven Posey

Information Technology Acts
The telephone was invented in 1870; it was a major technological breakthrough. Before the telephone the telegraph was widely used but communication was limited to the dot and dash Morse code. By developing infrastructure through the years the telephone has become a convenient and effective method of communication. Eventually it was common for households to have a telephone. This provided a new method of advertising and increased sales opportunities for business. According to "Callcentrehelper" (n.d.), “Call centers were first utilized in the mid-1960’s, Private Automated Business Exchanges (PABX) began to be used to handle large numbers of customer contacts” (Early Automatic Call Distributors (ACD)). As the call centers became more sophisticated the telemarketing became an annoyance to both families and businesses. In response to the overuse of telemarketing, two critical pieces of legislation passed, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 and Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003.
These two pieces of legislation complement each other. The Do Not Call Implementation Act provided the public the opportunity to add their telephone number to The National Do Not Call Registry. This registry is managed and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Do Not Call legislation provides a national data base and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act restricts the use of automated telephone equipment for the use of telemarketing. The TCPA also enacted penalties for unsolicited telemarketing. For example, if a person has received multiple unsolicited calls from the same company in a 12-month period that consumer can receive $500 per violation ("Telephone Consumer Protection Act" n.d.). These two pieces of legislation provided a response to “widespread consumer dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of the current rules and network technologies available to protect consumers from unwanted telephone solicitations,” According to "Federal Communications Commission" (n.d.).
Effective implementation of both the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Do Not Call Act has provided relief to consumers from unwanted telemarketing. The National No Call Registry is simple to navigate and it is easy to register to prevent solicitation. These two pieces of legislation give power back to the consumer; they can determine how the time at home is spent, answering phone calls, or spending it with their family.

References

callcentrehelper. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.callcentrehelper.com/the-history-of-the-call-centre-

15085.htmTelephone Consumer Protection Act. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.gpoaccess.gov.
Federal Communications Commission. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.gpoaccess.gov.