Cellphone users will soon be allowed to view and revoke the promotional messages they had agreed to receive earlier from banks and businesses. This, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has said, will be done through a proposed Digital Consent Acquisition system it is testing together with the Reserve Bank of India.
As part of the pilot project, telecos will send SMS alerts to a small group of customers. These messages will be from short code 127000 and will allow selected users to view, manage or revoke the marketing permissions they had given to banks or companies earlier.
Right now, customers can block promotional calls or messages but only sector-wise -- such as real estate, education or banking. They can also allow messages from select businesses. But there has been no proper system for consumers to see or revoke the consents they gave years ago on paper forms or at stores. This has been resulting in much confusion and misuse.
The new TRAI-RBI digital consent system aims to fix this problem. It will provide customers with a single, easy online platform where they can see all the promotional permissions they have given out and cancel them whenever they want. If a customer revokes consent, promotional messages from that business must stop.
A total of nine telecom operators and eleven major banks- including SBI, PNB, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Canara Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Overseas Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank -- are part of this pilot project. These banks have started uploading sample sets of old customer consents to the new digital platform.
During testing, only a limited number of customers will receive text messages. They can use the secure link to visit the telecom company's consent management page and make changes. No personal or financial details will be asked at any point.
TRAI has also advised customers to respond only to messages sent from the 127000 short code. People who do not receive any SMS now need not worry - the countrywide rollout is expected later.
