Telemarketing gains another enemy — the Canadian government

Previ­ously I’d writ­ten about iOp­tOut, a free ser­vice, set up by Cana­dian Law Pro­fessor Michael Geist.

Well today cit­izens of Canada are now able to register on another Do Not Call list, this one run by the gov­ern­ment.  Mar­keters should real­ize that tele­market­ing is so 20^th century.

But, even with this double-double assault on tele­marketers, this new solu­tion isn’t perfect.

The prob­lem is, Cana­dian law allows many exemp­tions to the Do Not Call reg­u­la­tions, includ­ing polit­ical parties, sur­vey com­pan­ies, news­pa­pers and registered charities.

As well, if you have a pre­vi­ous busi­ness rela­tion­ship with an organ­iz­a­tion, yep, they can mar­ket to you over the phone.

Now, here’s where iOp­tOut dif­fers from the fed­eral opt-out service.

Under the law, exemp­ted organ­iz­a­tions are per­mit­ted to make unso­li­cited tele­phone calls des­pite the inclu­sion of the num­ber in the do-not-call registry. How­ever, organ­iz­a­tions must remove num­bers from their lists if spe­cific­ally reques­ted to do so.

iOp­tOut is a ser­vice that ‘spe­cific­ally requests’ that your num­ber be removed from tele­market­ing lists. It fills the holes in the legis­la­tion by main­tain­ing a list of organ­iz­a­tions (some of which you have dealt with in the past, banks, air­lines, etc) and once you set up your pro­file, con­tacts them on your behalf and asks for your num­ber to be removed. Simple and effect­ive. And, when coupled with the fed­eral list, maybe even doubly so.