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Do-Not-Call Registry Coming to Canada

Posted by michael on from the quiet,-eh dept.

The Fred writes "The Globe and Mail reports that the Canadian federal government is looking to devise a national do-not-call registry to match the US attempt. Issues regarding the impact on charities are being analyzed."

1 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. You can have my phone number... by rangefinder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... when you pry it from my cold, dead Nokia.

    I'd love to see a do-not-call registry in this country. However, given the track record of this government, I'll make the following not-so-bold predictions:

    • If they say it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, it will cost billions. Even in Canadian currency, that's a fair sum.
    • Because of the glacial pace of operations, the registry will be so out of date as to be useless.
    • Random chunks of the database will be carelessly left within public view.
    • The work of creating the database will be given to firms which have traditionally been financial supporters of the party.
    • The database will be deficient in some fundamental way, e.g., it won't be able to handle multiple numbers for individuals, and correcting this will cost millions more.
    • If the office handling the registry is outside Ottawa, it will be in a riding that elected a member of the party.

    I could go on; colour me cynical. Far better than a "do-not-call" registry would be an "okay-to-call" registry. Why should I have to opt-in to prevent intrusive calls? If you want to receive unsolicited phone calls, you should jump through the hoops to get them, rather than others doing so to prevent them. The last thing I want to do is give this government my phone number. Let's not even start talking about filling out a census form....