IN FULL VIEW
Online complaints to the CRTC are posted with personal contact information
Have you ever been bugged by unwanted calls?
Canada’s telecom regulator is looking at technical solutions to protect Canadians from telemarketing calls, especially those from overseas using caller ID spoofing to disguise their origin.
The CRTC posts comments on its website, along with the contact information of the person submitting them — including the name, address, email address and, yes, the phone number.
“Hope these folks are aware their ‘interventions’ are posted for all to see,” said Jay Dell-Mah, who alerted me after following a link in my previous column about threatening calls from fraudulent tax collectors.
“Too bad the CRTC didn’t consider the irony of having the protectors of our privacy publishing the very material of interest to the pirates.” I asked the CRTC why it posted contact information when users submitted comments. Couldn’t it collect information to verify an identity without exposing it online?
I also got in touch with a number of people who had contacted the CRTC about unwanted calls, picking them at random from the 139 comments posted so far. The consultation ends Jan. 11, 2016. Here are my conclusions: The CRTC should warn people in bold print that every contact detail they submit will appear online.
People who complain about telemarketers blocking their phone numbers should make sure to shield their own phone numbers from the CRTC.
As a quasi-judicial body, the CRTC makes its proceedings public in the same way that court proceedings are public. You can submit comments in a public proceeding and hear back from other people who reply to your comments, using the contact information you have provided.
“The CRTC takes privacy matters very seriously and treats personal information in a manner that is consistent with the privacy legislation,” says spokesman Eric Rancourt.
Before you enter your contact information at the site, you are told it will be posted on the CRTC’s website and will become part of the public file.
Then you have to acknowledge you have read and accepted the terms and conditions (including the priva- cy policy) before you click the “submit” button.
Your contact information is shielded from search engines. It can be found only by going to the relevant part of the website and looking at the comments (called interventions) one at a time. The CRTC also asks how you want to be contacted when you submit comments. The default option is email, but you can change it to a phone number or fax number. Choosing email is better, since you won’t have to provide any other contact information.
Here is what I heard from people who gave multiple points of contact with their comments. Kamran: I didn’t know it was open to everybody. I thought it was totally private. I get many unwanted calls a day. Now everyone can see my phone number. Bonnie: I wasn’t aware the information was shown at such length. It shouldn’t be on there. Ken: I am not too worried if the information is held in confidence. Keith: I don’t mind my name, city and province being posted. But publishing my phone number and email address seemed a bit much, since it would probably result in more spam and telemarketing calls. Rob: I was aware what I was saying could be made public. I was perhaps not aware there would be so much personally identifying detail. I am concerned about that level of detail. Richard: Yes, I am aware of it. My name and phone number is in the local phone book and my email is on LinkedIn. Privacy is not a concern for me, as I am not engaging in anything illegal.
Should the CRTC protect your phone number from view when you complain about getting unwanted calls from marketers who protect their own phone numbers from view? Please let me know what you think and how you want to be identified in a future column. Ellen Roseman writes about personal finance and consumer issues. You can reach her at eroseman@thestar.ca or ellenroseman.com.