Telecom Trends

At Bell Canada's and Bell Aliant's Annual General Meetings this year, there was a questioner from the floor who appeared at both meetings.

With each of the CEOs, he pursued the question of unauthorized voice recording by call centres.

Rick Garrett, a former Aliant employee, has been campaigning for call centres to announce their recording practices for outbound calls. He is concerned about how the recordings are used and shared.

We spoke at length this week. The issue potentially crosses a number of departmental boundaries. There is, of course, the potential breech of privacy regulations. The office of the Privacy Commissioner has a fact sheet for Best Practices in the recording of calls. Since it was issued in 2002 (and updated in 2004), it is likely overdue for further refreshing.

He is also concerned with inappropriate marketing practices and sharing of information within a single call centre, but for the benefit of multiple clients. For example, if upon reviewing the tapes, a call centre manager finds a particularly vulnerable person at the end of a call, would that person be targeted for other campaigns?

What is the level of recording and voice analysis taking place by businesses in Canada and call centres located off-shore? Which agencies of government care?

As a questioner at the AGMs, Rick may not have been taken seriously by the media because of frequent digressions into tales of his personal exploits. I sympathize with him, having been known to make a short story long myself. Perhaps that is why I tried to listen to find the kernel of his concerns.

I think there are some meritorious issues to be found in his campaign. Beyond the valid privacy concerns, we need to look at how an individual deals with our regulatory structures and institutions.

One of the problems with our regulatory system is that our processes are geared for corporations and organizations with budgets to fund participation in lengthy formal proceedings. How do individuals get to participate without risking their family savings?

The CRTC has twice ordered consumers of telecom services to pay cost awards for simply participating in a proceeding, let alone being the applicant. That sure puts a chill on encouraging end-users to be a part of the process.

Where is the telecom ombudsperson as called for in the TPR?

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Update [July 18, 4:45 pm]
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has provided a comment, indicating that the fact sheet is currently being revised.

Update [July 23, 2:45 pm]
The Globe and Mail is reporting that the major Canadian phone companies (Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, SaskTel, Telus, MTS, Rogers, Virgin Mobile, Cogeco, Vidéotron and Vonage) have jointly filed a proposal with the CRTC to create an office of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services, initially to be filled by David McKendry, a former CRTC Commissioner.

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