Lawmaker Leong Sun Iok is appealing to the city’s authority to ban marketing phone calls.
The lawmaker thinks that the local government must develop new ideas and legal tools to regulate the seemingly ceaseless and disturbing calls from companies who seek to do business.
Last week, the Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested three beauty center managers who are suspected of violating the personal data protection act. According to the PJ, since the beginning of 2019, the Office for Personal Data Protection (GDPD) received complaints from many citizens about disturbing phone calls from these beautician businesses.
In Leong’s opinion, Macau’s personal data protection regulations already cover all matters related to these calls. He pointed out that these marketing calls “not only involve personal data protection but also concern people’s private lives and infringement of quiet enjoyment.”
Among the more common phone call marketing tactics now being used, businesses dial numbers randomly using a machine service. In Macau, most of the disruptive phone calls are from beauty businesses.
Leong proposed the local government establish laws banning unsolicited calls for business promotion purposes.
Warm call marketing is slightly different. One party normally gains consent from the target in advance before making the call. The lawmaker also believes there is a need to regulate warm call marketing. For example, Leong recommended that a company must make a declaration to the government before contacting their targeted market, and that the business must call from a phone number with a recognizable code.
Leong advised that in Macau, two parties coordinate to make this kind of marketing call successful. One party is the company or individual who makes the phone call to talk with people; the other party is the business, which hires the aforementioned company to promote products. The lawmaker believes that the number of marketing phone calls can be reduced if both parties are held responsible for violations.
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