[Calpernia]

Well then I'll bore you with my point. Freepers on the other thread seem to have missed it.

HECK with the FREE SPEECH issue! HECK with the telemarketers. Don't worry about them. They can't call you without a list.

THE LIST should be everyone's concern. Companies, Government and whoever else I'm missing, SELL our information for profit. Some without our consent, others with 'misled' consent. All and and all, when did our name and personal data become a commodity? AND why shouldn't we get a kick back?

Freeper m1-lightening responded that there is a Privacy Act Bill In Progress. THIS is the bill we need to support. If people can't sell our names, then there is NO LIST for the telemarketers to call you on.

[Sarastro]

HECK with the telemarketers. Don't worry about them. They can't call you without a list.

Actually they can and do. Their automated dialers plow through all numbers. If someone answers, the call is transferred to a live person. If you ever picked up, said "hello" and listened to blank air for 2-3 seconds until someone came on, you experienced this technique.

Therefore, if I say hello and get no immediate response, I hang up immediately.

Incidentally, I have a second telephone line so that calls coming in when line 1 is busy kick over to line 2. The number for the second line is unlisted and I haven't given it to anyone. Anytime I see a call coming in on that line, I know with certainty that it's a computerized telephone dialer. Needless to say, I don't even pick up.

[discostu]

The list isn't as big a piece of information as you'd think. Some telemarketers just sequential dial, no list needed. If we took away their ability to sell lists then the only effect would be to increase the frequency of sequential dialing. Not that the privacy bill isn't a good thing, but it won't touch this problem.