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1967 Utah L. Rev. 379 (1967)
Unwanted Telephone Calls--A Legal Remedy

handle is hein.journals/utahlr1967 and id is 389 raw text is: NOTES Unwanted Telephone Calls - A Legal Remedy? The telephone has become an indispensable convenience in modem society. Yet, the obvious utility of the telephone is lessened by the rising number of incidents of telephone soliciting and of obscene, harassing, and threatening calls.1 The purpose of this note is to explore the legal issues and policy considerations surrounding the control of these calls. Although a common solution to the problem of unwanted calls is the unlisted number,2 the assumption will be made that the unlisted number is, for most individuals, neither desirable nor practical and that the utility of the telephone as a means of communication would be greatly impaired if a substantial number of persons were forced to have unlisted telephone numbers to protect their privacy.3 For the purposes of this note, unwanted telephone calls will be divided into two categories - perverse calls and telephone soliciting. This dichotomy is convenient since the problems of detection, the effect upon the recipients, and the considerations of policy between the two types of calls are quite dissimilar. Perverse calls will be defined as telephone calls in which obscene, lewd, or indecent language is used or calls that are intended to and have the effect of harassing, annoying, or threatening the called party or his family. Telephone soliciting will be defined as the practice of calling strangers without prior invitation for the purposes of selling or advertising goods or services, obtaining information through surveys or opinion polls, or soliciting contributions. I. BACKGROUND: PRIVACY AND THE TELEPHONE By its very presence, the telephone is disruptive of personal privacy. Any individual may call another regardless of the inconvenience to the recipient 'Selling by telephone has become a big business. There are national advertising agencies that specialize in conducting telephone blitzes; one such agency recently tele- phoned 8,000,000 homes in 100 cities drumming up trade for an automobile manufac- turer. This agency uses some 15,000 telephone solicitors in 550 market areas, and a competing agency can deliver telephone commercials to any pre-selected city block in any market in the United States. See 30 CONSU R EP. 331, 332 (1965). In 1965 the Bell telephone system received 375,000 complaints of obscene and threatening calls. N -wswEEK, May 30, 1966, at 36. During 1966 complaints increased from 46,000 to 56,000 per month. NEwSWEEK, Jan. 30, 1967, at 15. 'There are two types of unlisted numbers. A nonpublished number is deleted from the telephone directory as well as from the telephone company's information service. Only under emergency circumstances will the operator divulge this number. A nonlisted number is still kept on the company's information service and is given out to anyone requesting the number. GooD HOUSEKEEPING, Oct 1965, at 173. An increasing num- ber of telephone users have requested unlisted numbers, and some telephone companies have increased the cost to the subscribers with unlisted numbers in order to discourage such service. 30 CONSUMER REP. 331 (1965); GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Oct. 1965, at 173; see Pun. UTm. FORT., Sept 12, 1963, at 27. 3 In California Fireproof Storage Co. v. Brundige, 199 Cal. 185, 188, 248 P. 669, 670 (1926), the court said: A telephone directory is an essential instrumentality in con- nection with the peculiar service which a telephone company offers for the public benefit and convenience. It is as much so as is the telephone receiver itself, which would be prac- tically useless without the accompaniment of such directories. Telephone companies dislike the unlisted numbers because the burden upon the information operators is sub- stantially increased as they begin to serve the role of an answering service. In addition, other subscribers become irate when they are unable to reach someone who is known to have a telephone. See M. BRENTON, THE PRrvAcy INvADERS 178 (1964). 379

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