Proposed FTC Telemarketing Rule Changes Gets Mixed Reviews

The National Association of Attorneys General backed the FTC's proposed amendments to the commission's telemarketing sales rule (see 2206020066). A five-year record-keeping requirement is "necessary to ensure that essential evidence remains available to law enforcement," the group, which included 39 attorneys general, said in comments posted Wednesday. The proposed amendments to call detail records "will greatly assist law enforcement in connecting illegal lead generation robocalls to the companies that profit from them," NAAG said. The FTC should require that sellers and telemarketers "include a campaign ID for each call" and "record the originating or gateway telecommunications provider for each campaign," said a coalition of consumer advocacy organizations, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, National Consumer Law Center and Public Knowledge. The World Privacy Forum backed the proposed changes and asked the FTC to require that telemarketers "retain a record of whether or not voice biometrics ... were used on any calls." The group opposed the proposal to expand the consumer data telemarketers keep. Don't repeal the exemption for business-to-business telemarketing calls, said the Third Party Payment Processors Association: "We believe that removing this exemption will cause more harm than good by unduly burdening legitimate business activities of honest and responsible companies." Sirius XM said the proposed call record retention requirements "can reveal sensitive demographic or financial information and result in customer harm." It also asked the FTC to limit record retention requirements to three years to ensure the commission's access to records doesn't impose "unnecessary burdens on businesses." The proposed amendments "would not protect businesses from any conduct that is not already prohibited by law," said the Revenue Based Finance Coalition. It "lacks adequate justification for both the additional record keeping requirements, as well as the extended duration of retention," said the Ohio Credit Union League.