Latest update March 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 09, 2014 Editorial
The recent opinion of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) about consumers continuing exposure to unsolicited mobile phone text messages, does not go very far in allaying public concerns and annoyance about this unwarranted nuisance. Many are the complaints about the frequency with which people are interrupted at whatever they are doing just to respond to a message alert.
Just imagine that in the midst of – let’s say —an important event, someone has to check out an alert because the incoming message might be an important one from a family member informing of an emergency. The fact that the message turns out to be an advertisement for a social event or a product or whatever is enough to generate intolerance for more of the same.
Members of the public want to be reassured that their cell phone numbers are theirs only to distribute as they please, and this expectation does not extend to any perceived right on the part of service providers.
Users of information technology already have a hard enough time dealing with junk mail and e-mail spam to now have to add cell phone spam to the list. The irritating thing is that once a message enters the inbox it is highly improbable that it would be deleted immediately without at least scanning the contents.
The point is that unsolicited nuisance messages require taking time away from other things to identify the sender and nature of the message before taking the necessary action.
In other countries consumers are advised to report text message spam to the service provider but in Guyana this may not be practical, because the only way those senders of spam can get your number is via the provider. Therefore the only avenue seemingly available to cell phone users to shut down and block spammers is the PUC.
However, it could be argued that the mere sharing of persons phone numbers to undesirable third parties constitutes a violation of privacy. Maybe this is as good a time as any to explore legal remedies in this regard.
The thing is that spam-blocking measures are not widely known and this puts cell phone owners at a distinct disadvantage to their foreign counterparts. Overseas, even though spammers can always find loopholes to override preventative measures like changing their sending numbers, at least there are ways which provide at least a temporary degree of comfort.
Currently consumers can only block phone spam messages coming through one service provider in this country by way of an ‘opt out’ feature. This information should be made widely available for anyone desirous of opting out from advertising text messages.
Consumers have also been exposed to various scams through spam including lottery winnings, or a variety of equally outrageous claims that are intended to appeal to the venal side of human nature. Of course any response to these irritants will only result in the recipient becoming the target for more such nonsense.
Therefore, the thing not to do is to respond in any way to spam messages in much the same way that people ignore and simply delete e-mail spam. Notwithstanding that the proliferation of cell phone spam might be due to ineffective or non-existent cell phone spam filters, the fact remains is that cell phone lists can only be distributed by the wireless service providers themselves who may have little incentive to expend in upgrading their spam filters.
Therefore the question that remains is “How much further is the PUC prepared to provide a remedy to rid us of this pestilence?”
All of the foregoing is not to suggest that some good cannot be found in the practice of facilitating the sending text messages to multiple cell phones. Crime advisories; harbor bridge closures; traffic diversions and other public service announcements would surely be welcomed in varying degrees depending on who is affected by the event.
It therefore goes without saying that the utility and reach of that medium must be weighed against the nuisance value of unwelcome cell phone text messages.
Maybe the time has come to examine legislation which addresses cell phone users’ protection with particular reference to assaults of privacy from unsolicited text messages.
Listen to the man that is throwing Guyanese bright future away
Mar 19, 2024
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