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Canadian Privacy Laws being broken

gnordoff
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Under Canadian provisions for privacy,  Public Mobile is allowing spam and nuisance calls through. I keep recieving voicemail errors for such  calls that are blocked at the phone/device level. This is un-acceptable. I would like Telus and/or Public Mobile to enable blocking of numbers from the do-not-call National List.

 

Get back to me.

 

Thanks 

9 REPLIES 9

Community_QA
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@gnordoff  do your research first and understand what is National Do Not Call list. 

 

Timer
Mayor / Maire

@gnordoff 

the surprising not just a calls they also use SMS
and public mobile can't do anything about those calls or SMS,

 

just ignore and delete it, and not call back to any number you don't know who is.

JL9
Mayor / Maire

This is not limited to Telus or PM, it is all carriers.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@dust2dust wrote:

Koodo and Telus have a service called Call Control where you set up a list of numbers that can call through but then for everyone else it asks for a code or something. I say that's a hassle. I just answer every call. 


@dust2dust Call Control is very very effective with calls though it does not help at all with spam SMS.  

 

Anyone on any network can block numbers on their phone that have spam/robodialed them, but this has two big limitations:

1) because the call is blocked at the phone and not the network, the caller gets redirected to voicemail where they can leave you annoying automated voicemails that just waste your time calling in to check and delete, and 

2) robodialers keep changing up the number they call you from, so blocking the previous outbound won't help with the next call, and the one after that.

 

Call Control is different because it's at the network level.  Like you said you can allow-list people you actually want calling and to not be hassled by the prompt--they connect straight through and your phone rings.  For anyone you explicitly add to the block list in the Call Control, they are blocked at the network level and hear a message that the person they are calling is not accepting calls and are hung up on, so no annoying voicemail message is recorded.  For anyone on neither list, they hear a short request for them to press a randomly selected number (I believe it's a single digit).  If it's a real human on the phone, they will press the number and your phone will ring.  If they complain and it's someone you want calling you, you could add them to your allowlist and they'll never have to do that again.  For all those robodialed calls however, they fail this prompt and are told you're not accepting calls and the call drops, again with no annoying voicemails left behind.

 

I had a life event where I was expecting to get some unexpected calls for a while which I needed to receive, so I turned off call control for about a month.  Before turning it off, I was getting zero spam calls and emails.  After turning it off, they returned.  There wasn't a ton but it was a noticeable increase over the zero while active.  Once I turned the feature back on again, the robocalls and voicemails stopped again.  It's almost miraculous how effective it is!

 

As mentioned however it does not help with spam sms, which I've noticed are starting to get more frequently lately.  I think a lot of spammers are moving on to this as a way to avoid call-based mechanisms like Call Control.

 

One additional option: for anyone with a Pixel phone (might be limited to 6a/6/6 Pro but I'm not 100% sure) with Android 12, you can use the call screening feature built into the dialer.  Your phone still rings (unlike with Call Control), but you can have Google interact with the person asking what they want and you see a transcript of them talking in real time on the screen.  If it's a legit call, you can then accept it, and if it's someone you don't want to talk to, one tap has Google tell them you're not accepting and hang up on them.  I've tried it a few times (particularly while I had Call Control disabled for a while) and it works pretty well.  


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DDM69
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

Hahaha. You’re kidding right?  Everyone gets spam calls. I have a Rogers landline, I’m on the do not call list and I get multiple calls per week. I’m sure if Telus could identify the spam calls they would block them. 🤪

dust2dust
Mayor / Maire

I don't think it's a privacy issue. Spammers use legit numbers and then robocall them. There used to be improper looking numbers like V-etc that the CRTC did require telecoms to block. But they can't reasonably block legit numbers.

Koodo and Telus have a service called Call Control where you set up a list of numbers that can call through but then for everyone else it asks for a code or something. I say that's a hassle. I just answer every call. I don't understand people getting all bent out of shape over it. A recording starts, hang up. It's not difficult. Sure yet another useless junk call but it could also be a real call from someone.

 

But it's not about privacy.

Meow
Mayor / Maire

How can anybody figure out if call is spam or not????

Your neighbour can call you and offer something you do not need/like.

If you do not recognize number, just do not pick it up, simple as that. Spam calls, spoofed numbers, etc. will continue.

RossN
Mayor / Maire

@gnordoff lol you know that,s an issue with all of us? the telacom companies are trying to deter these scumbags,unfortunately will little sucess  so get used to it

hTideGnow
Mayor / Maire

HI @gnordoff   Honest, I doubt PM broke any law in your case. 

 

Telecom provide a means for others to communicate with you.  I do not recall they have are legally responsible to block any calls you do not like 

 

the National Do NOT call list does not mean PM needs to block those numbers.  It is only the owner of those number broke the law by keep calling you if you have their number added.

 

You can of course complain to CRTC directly, but maybe you need to find out exact which terms that Telus/PM has violated.

 

Some Tier 2 and Tier 1 providers do have better Spam call services, with a charge.  Again, they are just add-ons service you choose to join, not a responsibility for them to offer those service for free

 

 

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