On April 2, 2024, the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) announced that it will update the Registry of Excluded Numbers (RNE) on April 10, 2024. The purpose of this update is to allow individuals, in addition to excluding their phone number from receiving promotional text messages, to exclude themselves from receiving promotional messages through other channels such as
- Email
- Telephone calls
- Messages via applications or the web
This update of the RNE is made pursuant to Law 2300 of 2023 "Stop Frying Law". Article 5 of this law establishes that the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MinTIC), in coordination with the CRC, will implement the technical measures to adapt the RNE to the provisions of Law 2300 of 2023.
Although the CRC published a draft resolution to amend the RNE for comment on December 11, 2023, and received 15 comments from various groups, including companies, authorities and associations, the final content of the Resolution is not yet known. Therefore, despite the announcement, the impact is not clear.
Currently, the RNE is a database of telephone numbers that, upon registration, is intended to prevent users from receiving short text messages (SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS) for commercial purposes. Due to the technical specifications of SMS and MMS, telecom operators can filter excluded numbers to limit the reception of these messages.
The inclusion of phone calls, emails and messages via apps or the web is controversial. On the one hand, because they do not have the same technical specifications as SMS and MMS, telecom operators are not able to automatically block phone numbers, emails or profiles on social networks, apps or websites.
On the other hand, for providers of goods and services, companies with a B2C business model, it is an excessive burden to have to check the RNE and cleanse their databases every time a mass marketing campaign is carried out via email, phone calls, and even via web or app messages.
Finally, there is no clarity regarding the privacy of the data of people who register with the RNE. This is because, upon registration, the person must register their phone numbers, emails, and social media profiles. This data is stored in the RNE and can be accessed by anyone who registers as a supplier of goods or services.
It is crucial that the CRC clearly defines the implementation mechanisms of the RNE update to understand the impact, the measures to be taken by telecom operators, B2C companies. and the risks faced by consumers.
