Opt in to the iOptOut revolution!

Have you ever been quietly going about the business of enjoying your life only to have it interrupted by a long distance ring and a request to speak to the lady or man of house that leaves you trapped in an unwelcome and unsolicited interrogation regarding your inability to fully realize the relative merits of a phone plan, a newspaper subscription, a thinly veiled marketing blitz banking survey or some other such nonsense that you would gladly chew one of your own limbs off if only it meant certain escape?

You know, the kind of “telemarketing” call that no amount of “I’m not interested”, “No thank-yous” or even blatant and highly imaginative obscenities will expedite you from?

Even if you somehow dodge that “free” time-share vacation you’ve recently won in the contest you can’t quite remember ever entering, the sense of relief and satisfaction gained by simply hanging up recedes rapidly into an aching knot in your gut and a sickening realization that no matter what you do or say, they will call again and again and again and again and again and again.

Who can we turn to and who can protect us?

The Tele-Zapper? It’s only marginally effective. Believe me, I’ve tried.

The Government? Unlikely at best. Canada’s do-not-call registry legislation, Bill C-37 was first introduced by the Liberals in 2004 and became law in late 2005. This registry is scheduled to take effect sometime in 2008 however the fine print states that many charities, businesses with prior relationships, political parties, survey companies and newspapers will be exempt and therefore permitted under the law to make unsolicited telephone calls. In other words, business as usual. Only by informing each and every organization that you wish to cease and desist will free you from the tyranny of the unwelcome telemarketer and that seems hardly practical.

Now before you capitulate and sign up for that 4,863 channel cable package with the low introductory rate, know that there is hope in the form of University of Ottawa law Professor Michael Geist.

“The policy priority ought to be where the government started, which when the legislation was first introduced was no exceptions. If a Canadian doesn’t want to receive phone calls from certain businesses or polling companies or charities, they ought to have the right to opt out of that,” says our hero.

Fresh off his success in trouncing the government’s ill conceived copyright legislation with his legions of supporters on Facebook Michael Geist as a private citizen has taken an “if I build it they will come” approach to a do-not-call registry. Last week he formally launched www.iOptOut.ca as a free public service and come they did. 10,000 people registered in the first few days.

iOptOut takes advantage of the part of the legislation that requires companies to remove your name and number from their call lists if you formally notify them. All that is required is that you to create an account on the www.iOptOut.ca website and to provide the system with your name, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Once registered, you can elect to opt out of all organizations listed in the system (currently about 150), opt out of whole categories such as “Polling Companies” or pick and choose the specific organizations, charities and businesses that you no longer wish to receive unsolicited communications from. Once completed, and it took me less than two minutes from start to finish, you have essentially created an automated do-not-call notification list for any number or all of these companies and organizations.

If you truly value your peace and quiet, you can elect to have all future organizations added to the system automatically notified as well. If you have privacy concerns regarding providing your personal information toiOptOut, then you can even elect to have your information removed from the system once the initial batch notification is complete.

If simply joining the iOptOut revolution will not sufficiently calm the rage that burns within you towards rouge telemarketers, than iOptOut also provides a wiki, to allow anyone to suggest a new company or organization to add to the list.

There are hundreds of organizations that make thousands of telemarketing calls daily and not all unsolicited calls to my home are unwanted, unwarranted or unwelcome however Professor Geist’s websiteis essentially providing me an easy and effective tool to make a pre-emptive strike against those telemarketers that I do not want calling who will also be exempt under the new law.

For this remarkable service, I greatly thank him.

Related links:

iOptOut - website
Privacy Commissioner of Canada - iOptOut
Ingram 2.0 - Michael Geist vs. phone calling spam
Globe and Mail - Professor’s new website aims to stop the phone from ringing
CBC - Anti-telemarketing site draws thousands of registrants
Michael Geist - iOptOut: The First 36 Hours