The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Saturday asked telecom operators to follow a digital consent acquisition (DCA) process to seek, maintain and revoke consent of subscribers for receiving promotional messages and calls.
The telcos have been given time till July 31 to develop a digital consent acquisition facility and start taking user consent from August 1. Users will also be allowed to revoke their consent for receiving promotional messages and calls from brands and other principal entities.
The directions come after the authority noted promotional messages being sent to users without verification of consent. Telcos themselves have not developed any process for seeking consent of users, relying instead on consent taken by principal entities or companies that send commercial messages.
“The consent data collected will be shared on a digital ledger platform (DLT) for scrubbing (verification) by all access providers,” Trai said.
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DLT platforms are run by telecom operators where businesses that are involved in sending bulk promotional or transactional SMS need to register by giving their business details, including sender IDs and SMS templates. As per the directions, telecom operators will use a common short code 127 for sending consent seeking message. The purpose, scope of consent and principal entity/brand name shall be mentioned clearly in the consent seeking message sent through the short code. Only whitelisted URLs/APKs (Android package kits file format)/OTT links/call back numbers, etc shall be used in the consent seeking messages, Trai said.
In the first phase, only subscriber-initiated consent acquisition has been permitted. After successful implementation of consent acquisition facility, Trai will also allow principal entities such as banks, insurance, finance and trading firms to seek consent from users.
However, users can register their unwillingness to receive any consent seeking messages initiated by any principal entity. For that, telcos have been asked to develop an SMS/IVR (interactive voice response)/online facility.
As per the timeline shared by Trai, consent-taking exercise by principal entities will start from September 1.
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Regulations seeking user consent and revocation exist presently too, but were not being complied strictly by telecom operators. Most promotional messages were also being sent under the service message category, bypassing the DLT system.
Currently, users can blocking telemarketing calls and messages by sending a message to 1909 from their registered mobile number. By calling on 1909, users can activate the do not disturb (DND) facility for not receiving promotional calls.
