From the FTC:
The Federal Trade Commission is challenging the public to create an innovative solution that will block illegal commercial robocalls on landlines and mobile phones. As part of its ongoing campaign against these illegal, prerecorded telemarketing calls, the agency is launching the FTC Robocall Challenge, and offering a $50,000 cash prize for the best technical solution.
This is the agency’s first government contest hosted on Challenge.gov, an online challenge platform administered by the U.S. General Services Administration, in partnership with ChallengePost. Challenge.gov empowers the U.S. government and the public to bring the best ideas and top talent to bear on our nation’s most pressing issues.
Read more about the challenge on FTC.
Here’s an idea.. Private right of action against anyone who is making money from them. Unless a company can show a positive business relationship with a number in the past eighteen months, they have no business contacting them, causing another entity to contact them, or having a third party contact them on the company’s behalf.
Oh, that would “stifle innovation,” “hold back business,” and “threaten small companies that are the engine of America.” Are there other buzzwords I forgot?
Give people the right to chase the telemarketing scum, and it will turn into a cottage industry. If they can prove usage of a current-ish usage of the federal Do Not Call registry, perhaps give them an affirmative defense against individual suits, but let the state and federal prosecutors have the most notorious of the vermin.
I’d like a tech solution that allows my phone to transmit some malware back to the robocaller that knocks them out. Zap, zap, zap. I know, dream on…