2022-07-25 - unwanted telemarketing

this one gonna be short and on an unusual topic. but let's start from the beginning…

every1, at certain point, have received some form of a telemarketing that was not ordered, welcomed or (in anyway) wanted. i used to receive quite a lot of these, back in a day. it usually went like:

• me: hello?
• tm: hi. we have wonderful product, blablabla…
• me: where do you have this phone number from?
• tm: computer generates numbers for us to call.

…and this was a bit of a problem, as the rules were vague. until one day, when EU came with GDPR (also known as “RODO” in PL) and rules became clear:

1. for any call from any company – they need to get my explicit consent on receiving that, *before* calling.
2. consent cannot be obligatory.
3. even if i agreed at some point, i can always change my mind (and the process of recalling the consent shall be simple!).

so now the discussion goes like… no wait – there's no discussion! :D because breaking GDPR can (and often does) lead to financial punishments, companies are very careful not to get in the way of these rules. i honestly do not remember when was the last time i've received unwanted telemarketing call, which is great! however life happens – this year i did received 1 such a call. it went like this:

• me: hello?
• tm: hi. we have wonderful product, blablabla…
• me: where do you have this phone number from?
• tm: computer generates numbers for us to call.
• me: what is the regulation, based which you are calling me? i have not consent for such calls.

…and tm hanged up here! it was annoying for at least 2 reasons:

1. it was clearly unlawful call
2. telemarketer did not even bothered to reply

what can you do about that? there are 2 main departments you can report it to:

1. UKE (based on telecommunications regulations)
2. UODO (based on GDPR/RODO)

for UKE (PL: Urzad Komunikacji Elektronicznej), you can report via contact form. the only effect is that they inspect most notorious offenders. but, it's still worth noting, as it bumps up offends counter by +1. :)

for UODO (PL: Urzad Ochrony Danych Osobowych) you can follow this instruction, by selecting filing complain in electronic form, which redirects you to ePUAP page for filing complains to UODO. it's a really simple form to fill up (basically describe the incident in words) and things roll on their own from that point.

just for the record – GDPR goes *far* beyond unwanted phone calls. these annoying phone calls, so common in the past, are just a good example, how citizen can benefit from GDPR protection. i recall when GDPR was about to come live, ppl were complaining a lot about “extra paper work” and generally “who cares”.

in USA however there were no such regulations, and not only telemarketers but also robocalls were actually a big thing there (not sure about status quo now). in this sense EU made a preemptive attack on such practices, before they became a daily nightmare to regular ppl affected by it. EU – thank you for making that happen! :*