[HN Gopher] Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisib...
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Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your
family phone plan
Author : LinuxBender
Score : 53 points
Date : 2023-02-19 18:14 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| josephcsible wrote:
| On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is
| this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence
| hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes?
| If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount
| of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on
| it make it obvious what happened?
| rgmerk wrote:
| The obvious response to this is to make calls to DV hotline
| services free.
|
| The cost to carriers would be negligible.
| zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
| Do those plans even exist anymore?
| klyrs wrote:
| In Canada you can save $5 by downgrading to plans that would
| be offensive anywhere else in the early 00s...
| nicbou wrote:
| They're common in Germany, since calls and SMS are rarely
| used. Mobile data for WhatsApp is far more useful.
| dewey wrote:
| I wouldn't say it's common in Germany. I just checked some
| providers and most of them just have one line saying "Phone
| and SMS flatrate to all German networks" in their plans.
| The only differentiation between plans these days is how
| much data is included.
| culturestate wrote:
| You have to _really_ be pinching pennies to get one of
| those plans. Even on Aldi Talk, you 'd only pay EUR3 more
| per month for unlimited calls and SMS than you would for a
| data-only plan.
|
| https://www.alditalk.de/produktinformationsblatt
| Lucent wrote:
| Domestic abuser: "I tallied only 748 minutes of calls across
| these 9 pages, and after subtracting the 500 included minutes
| in your plan, we were only charged an additional $12.28 instead
| of the expected $12.40. Explain yourself!"
| bitwize wrote:
| If you think domestic abusers won't go to these lengths, you
| must not know any victims.
| advisedwang wrote:
| They haven't decided details like this. The actual notice of
| proposed rulemaking [1] explicitly asks for feedback on this:
|
| > 117. We also seek comment on whether we should establish
| exceptions...? How often are toll calls or usage-fee-inducing
| mobile calls and text messages made to hotlines?
|
| > 145. Are there any potential inconsistencies between the
| rules that we might adopt to ensure the privacy of calls and
| text messages to hotlines and other Commission rules or state
| regulations? For example, would omitting toll calls that incur
| separate charges from consumers' bills conflict with our truth-
| in-billing rules? Are there any other potential
| inconsistencies? Should we explicitly resolve them and, if so,
| how? What role might disclaimers issued by service providers
| play?
|
| It also sounds like the sought some industry comment already
| and had any "insurmountable" objection:
|
| > 112. ...We note that there is no discussion of such concerns
| in the record in response to the Notice of Inquiry ... Indeed,
| neither of the two trade associations representing
| substantially different segments of what would be covered
| providers and/or providers of wireline voice service raise
| insurmountable issues relating to selectively omitting calls
| and text messages from call and text logs.
|
| I also suspect most domestic volence hotlines are toll free.
|
| [1] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-23-9A1.pdf
| josephcsible wrote:
| > I also suspect most domestic volence hotlines are toll
| free.
|
| Don't toll free calls placed from cell phones count against
| minutes just like normal calls do?
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| In the USA.
| neilv wrote:
| > _Service providers must also "omit records of calls or text
| messages to certain hotlines from consumer-facing call and text
| message logs," so that abusers cannot see when survivors are
| seeking help._
|
| I can see some of the other part of the Safe Connections Act
| being new, but were calls to a domestic violence hotline showing
| up on consumer-facing cellular (and POTS) records for the last
| 20+ years?
| nicbou wrote:
| I'm glad that some people are thinking about details like this.
| It feels like the world is increasingly indifferent to scenarios
| a typical tech worker has not experienced. Someone actually had
| to stop and think outside of their bubble, or at least convince
| their colleagues to think outside of theirs. It took some effort
| to get that approved, no doubt.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| [flagged]
| valleyer wrote:
| What's frustrating to me about your comment is that you and
| the person you're replying to seem to basically agree on the
| pertinent points, but you've chosen to make an irrelevant,
| unfalsifiable semantic argument.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| You are completely correct. :) Sorry mine also frustrated
| you.
| travisporter wrote:
| Deregulation and free market alone can't solve this problem
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(page generated 2023-02-19 23:02 UTC)