Robocalls with AI voices to be regulated under Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the agency says. I’m pretty sure this puts us on the timeline where we eventually get incredible, futuristic tech, but computers and robots still sound mechanical and fake.

  • @lewdian69@lemmy.world
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    1011 year ago

    How does this get enforced though? They don’t even enforce their no call list or cut down on junk robo calls as it is.

    • @linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      531 year ago

      Don’t undersell the FCC’s rules around robocalling. No, we’re still getting robocalls out the ass, but when it comes from US locations companies get their asses handed to them. The FCC is also the entity that’s pushing the telcos to Make it possible to stop it from overseas sources. The new laws that went in place this year f***** up my twilio automation that was sending me SMS messages on server failures. All of a sudden I have a bunch of paperwork to fill out and a waiting list to be able to send an SMS via API.

      If the FCC wasn’t impeding robocalls as much as it is phones would be useless by now.

        • @Kalothar@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Man some of these are funny, bold and ironic

          `` The FCC described the other 12 companies’ attached “robocall mitigation plans” as follows:

          Humbolt VoIP: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification was a .PNG file depicting an indiscernible object.” National Cloud Communications: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification was a document titled ‘Windows Printer Test Page’ that was unrelated to robocall mitigation.” Route 66 Broadband: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification consisted of a signed declaration by the Company’s CEO presented without additional content or context.” Tech Bizz Solutions: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification contained a letter, unrelated to robocall mitigation, from Harvard Business Services, Inc.” 2054235 Alberta: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification contained only the company’s business address.” Evernex: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification was a .PNG file that depicted the filer’s ‘Taxpayer Profile’ on a Pakistani government website.” My Taxi Ride: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification was a copy of an FCC public notice titled ‘FCC Facilitates Review of Restoring Internet Freedom Record.’” (Restoring Internet Freedom was the title of the FCC’s 2017 net neutrality repeal.) Nervill: The “attachment provided was a signature page on company letterhead with no substantive content or context.” SIA Tet: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification was a letter that stated: ‘Unfortunately, we do not have such a documents.’” Textodog: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification was a .PNG file that depicted a corporate icon.” USA-Connect.net: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification contained only a signature.” Viettel Business Solutions: “The robocall mitigation plan attached to its certification was a promotional document titled ‘Viettel Solutions: Making Smart Cities Vision a Reality.’”

          ``

      • @bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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        41 year ago

        For the past 2 weeks I have been getting calls from a company claiming to register companies for voice search optimization. I’ve repeatedly told them to stop calling me, to which they respond that the calls won’t relent until I sign up with their service. I’ve been threatened, mocked, and just straight hung up on, so now I enjoy just waisting as much of their time as possible. I filed a complaint last week, so I’m just logging all their calls to increase the inevitable fine (they’re US based, all of the agents are clearly American).

        • @linearchaos@lemmy.world
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          21 year ago

          tell them you’re interested, keep them on the line for as much time as possible, waste them every time. that becomes expensive for them at a point.

      • prole
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        31 year ago

        I feel like most of the decent filtering of these types of calls are happening at the carrier level at this point. At least in my experience. They’ve been getting better at filtering them out before your phone even rings…

        But I’m not sure that’s how it should be. This is why regulatory agencies exist in the first place. What’s the point if there is zero enforcement?

    • @Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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      161 year ago

      Most robo calls are not illegal as long as you follow the rules the FTC laid down.

      This would have ban AI generated voices, so regardless of the content of the robo call, if it used in AI voice it would be illegal.

    • @Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      211 year ago

      politicians use them for campaigning so unlikely, but yeah they should ban robo calls that haven’t been pre-authorized (having the pharmacy or whatever call should still be legal)

  • @kromem@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It seems like most people are missing “under existing law”

    Nothing is changing. The FCC is simply putting to a vote clarifying that “yes, the prohibitions regarding automated calling apply to AI generated voices too.”

  • @schnapsman@feddit.de
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    321 year ago

    If they banned all robocalling, wouldn’t that solve it? Can a prioritisation of quality of life over marketing include the phone space? Four US states ban billboards. With an ad blocker, the internet is usable. Nitpicking which tactics can be used in robocalls won’t hardly solve the vicious spread of misinformation in this way.

    • @brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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      211 year ago

      banned all robocalling

      Oh, I didn’t realize this was literally Nazi Germany.

      A slippery slope where the next thing you know, corporations aren’t people, they’re capping the unlimited anonymous campaign contributions, and ad-supported Neuralink requires informed consent.

    • Timwi
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      101 year ago

      I assume that banning all robocalls requires new legislation, whereas the regulation mentioned here didn’t.

    • @dirthawker0@lemmy.world
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      -21 year ago

      Robocalling isn’t inherently bad. Utilities and such institutions that have your membership (library, gym, health care etc) should be welcome to use robocalling to notify you of useful info like emergencies or changes to their schedules. It’s just the political ads, scams, and sales that need to be made illegal and punishable.

      • @DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Utilities and such institutions that have your membership (library, gym, health care etc) should be welcome to use robocalling to notify you of useful info like emergencies or changes to their schedules

        Those scenarios would be better handled through email or text message. Nothing that should be handled by a robocall is urgent enough to warrant disturbing people with a phone call, it should just be text or email.

        An actual emergency call, requiring your immediate attention, should absolutely not be handled by robocalls. If it doesn’t require immediate attention, then a call is not necessary.

        • @brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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          21 year ago

          Just pick up the damn phone & call me!

          -an elderly neighbor on his frustration with membership text messages from the aquarium

          An organization being welcome to use something doesn’t mean it’s necessary for them to do it!

          What do you think about national emergencies triggering automated calls to landlines?

          • @DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz
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            21 year ago

            What do you think about national emergencies triggering automated calls to landlines?

            Well that is something that could require immediate action for your safety, so it could make sense. We have a nation-wide civil defense siren system where I live for that kind of stuff, which I believe is a much better solution than cold-calling people who may or may not even be within range of their land line.

        • @dirthawker0@lemmy.world
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          01 year ago

          Personally I want fewer text messages coming up on my mobile. I give a lot of places the landline number precisely to avoid them.

      • prole
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        21 year ago

        The thing is, at this point, I’ve been so conditioned to ignore those kinds of calls, and immediately hang up if I accidentally pick one up, that I would probably miss the legitimate calls as well.

  • @YeetPics@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    How about this: if I get a robocall advertising a product/service or a politician’s campaign I get that product or service for FREE and if it’s for a politician they lose $25k from their pac or Superfund for each report (which gets donated to their opponent)?

    • @mPony@lemmy.world
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      71 year ago

      yeah then you’ll have even more GOC money funding fake “Democratic Party” robocalls.

      • @YeetPics@mander.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Yea except if we have a publishable reporting system (for robocalls, like the ones you’re making up rn) it won’t work like that will it? Being that the concept changes the status quo… This isn’t super difficult to figure out if you try ;)

    • @spongebue@lemmy.world
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      21 year ago

      I accidentally deleted that voice mail from the public benefits department a couple days ago and they haven’t called back yet ☹️

  • Herbal Gamer
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    61 year ago

    This has made me wonder… have any other europeans ever had problems with these?

    I don’t recall ever having been called by a robot.

    • Nyfure
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      1 year ago

      We sometimes get weird scam-sms, but thats about it.
      (We is my family, other people dont really talk about it with others that much)

    • @Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      51 year ago

      One of the reasons might be that a) robo calls are illegal here, and b) if someone uses them, they are easy to hunt down.

      I once got some robocalls, all of the same makeup telling me I had won a car and should call a premium number to claim it (Ha!). I just reported those numbers to the local equivalent of the FCC, and they took it down within days.

  • @PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Does this include google assistant making robocalls or answering my phone on my behalf? I sometimes use it to setup hair cut appointments.

    • @Spinny@lemmy.world
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      41 year ago

      Wait you can use Google Assistant to make calls? I just use it to filter out spam calls without answering.

  • Rentlar
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    51 year ago

    Wow this is interesting, I didn’t know there were existing limits on using prerecorded and generic (non-impersonating) robot calls. Including from campaigns but they have certain special limits.

    I wonder if the CRTC has similar rules in Canada.