The Commission has an obligation under Section 7(i) of the Telecom Act “to contribute to the protection of privacy of persons.”
Last Wednesday, the CRTC sent TELUS a letter in response to a tariff application that TELUS filed
to permit the Company to make calls to any of its customers subscribing to Non-Published Telephone Number service or Non-Listed Telephone Number service for the purposes of promoting products, services or discount plans, without the customer’s prior consent.
The Commission normally tries to dispose of tariff applications within 10 days of receipt (the application was filed on April 23). Last week’s letter informed TELUS that “Commission staff is in the process of analyzing the company’s proposal in light of the Commission’s determinations with respect to do not call lists.”
In other words, the CRTC recognized that there are some broader issues at stake here, which PIAC raises in a letter also sent last week. PIAC noted that privacy issues were among the matters to be dealt with later this year according to Decision 2008-34. The issue moves beyond simply the Do Not Call List, because it is unclear that subscribers to non-published service authorized the use of their phone number for telemarketing.
PIAC suggests that the implicit negative option of the DNCL is insufficient by the standards set by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPCC) [see precedent case here and guidelines here]. Perhaps the CRTC will follow PIAC’s recommendation to hold onto this application until the broader privacy issues are given a full hearing.
Will the CRTC adopt a higher or a lower standard of privacy protections than those recommended by the Privacy Commissioner?