A National Do-Not-Call Registry

Introduction

Each of us is being bombarded by unsolicited calls on a daily basis, if not hourly. Most of these calls were from people in legitimate businesses who wanted to tele-market something, for example, houses, training courses, bank loans, etc., and some were from frauds or scammers who wanted to set people up through scam calls. Even after the effectiveness of the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (the "PIPL")¹ since November 1st, 2021, people still see no end in sight of getting these unwanted calls, which are increasingly driving people crazy.

One cannot help wondering: is there a solution available? This article is mainly discussing how other countries are dealing with this nuisance and how we can learn from it.