Opt Out of Telemarketing

Compliments of Michael Geist comes a way to easily close a loophole that telemarketers are counting on.

"The Canadian government passed legislation in 2005 mandating the creation of a do-not-call registry. The registry is scheduled to take effect in mid-2008, yet many Canadians may be disappointed to learn about the exemption of a wide range of organizations (registered charities, business with prior relationships, political parties, survey companies, and newspapers). Under the law, exempted organizations are permitted to make unsolicited telephone calls despite the inclusion of the number in the do-not-call registry. However, organizations must remove numbers from their lists if specifically requested to do so."

Using ioptout.ca you simply enter your contact information, select the organizations you never want to hear from again and ioptout.ca sends the requests for you. If, after sending these 'opt out' requests you hear from the organization again, simply file a complaint with the privacy commissioner who must, by law, take enforcement action.

Although this is a beta version and there appear to be some initial problems with the login mechanism if you don't like being called in the middle of dinner by someone trying to sell you things you don't want or need it's well worth bookmarking.