How Effective is the Do Not Call List Anyway?
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s report (pdf), it gets the job done.
Of the 72% of Americans who had registered their telephone numbers for the “Do-Not-Call Registry,” 18% reported that they currently received no telemarketing calls, 59% reported that Implementation of the national Do not Call Registry they still received some, but far fewer than before they signed onto the Registry, and 14% said they received some, but a little less than before they registered. In addition, when asked about renewing their registrations, 25% of registered consumers had already renewed and 71% were planning to renew.
I’ve never actually added my number to the registry because I didn’t feel a need to. I rarely get calls from solicitors and I tend to screen calls from unknown numbers anyway. But recently, I’ve been experiencing an increase in strange calls with unrecognized numbers. My typical reaction is to google the number or visit whocallsme.com — this usually tells me if it’s a telemarketer or not. But if this keeps up, I might consider adding my number to the list.
From a privacy standpoint, the existence of the list itself is important. Many people view unsolicited calls as an invasion of their privacy. The fact that so many people have placed their numbers on the registry indicates that people respond well to methods of privacy protection that are both easy to use and effective. If protecting your bank statement from dumpster divers, or protecting your phone from wiretaps was as simple as signing an opt-out list, perhaps there would be a decrease in cases of privacy violations and an increase in the number of citizens that feel secure.