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Ring off!By Wannapa Phetdee Fed up with pestering SMS messages? Authorities have come up with an idea to rescue you. "We plan to introduce something like a 'Do Not Call Centre' in a bid to block unwanted SMS messages," PM's Office Minister Satit Wongnongtaey said yesterday. Satit is also the chair of the Consumer Protection Board. In foreign countries, telemarketers and attentiongetters are barred from contacting someone who has registered his or her phone number with a Do Not Call Centre. A meeting of the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB), National Telecommunication Commission of Thailand, all mobilephone operators and Office of the Insurance Commission will discuss the issue on July 4 in a bid to identify ways of blocking unwanted SMS messages, Niroth Charoenprakob, secretarygeneral of the OCPB said. Selling phone numbers "We'll find out how advertisers get consumers' personal numbers," said Niroth. "The OCPB will ask relevant agencies such as mobilephone operators to help block the SMS messages and ask them to open hotlines for consumer complaints. We'll also consider new regulations to guard people's privacy. "Our initial investigation found that some banks give customers' numbers to insurance companies so they can sell policies via mobile phones. We also found that numbers had been sold to advertisers by cellphone operator employees and administrators of certain associations," he added. 'Irritating' ads The OCPB is getting more and more complaints about pestering phone calls and SMS messages. Satit revealed his idea after a survey by Assumption University on Sunday showed most people wanted the government to step in and protect them. Of 1,379 respondents, 71.6 per cent said the government should stop such intrusive marketing techniques from disturbing their lives. Many respondents cited "irritating" adverts for fortunetelling services, credit cards, games, photos and ring tones. Satit said he would be pushing the idea of a personaldataprotection law as a way of stopping the selling on of mobile phone numbers. "I expect the draft bill to sail through Parliament at its next session," he said. In the meantime, the Consumer Protection Board will ask the operators for their cooperation. "Consumers' personal data should be protected," said Satit.
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