35 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2017 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Thu, 06 Apr 2017
Volume 36 : Issue 40 : "text" format

Table of contents
Happy Easter!HAncock4
Ninth Circuit rules that gym's unwanted texts are a concrete injuryMonty Solomon
"Point and click" dialing system ruled not an autodialer Monty Solomon
Anti abortion groups use phone geo-locationsdanny burstein
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <ad257e0c-1ff0-4a7c-82bf-23d8fe4a7793@googlegroups.com> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 11:36:46 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Happy Easter! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. Here are some past Easter Greetings from Western Union (advertisements in LIFE magazine.) 1956 https://books.google.com/books?id=wFQEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA9&dq=life%20bunnygram&pg=PA9#v=onepage&q=life%20bunnygram&f=true 1947 https://books.google.com/books?id=7EkEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA75&dq=life%20easter%20western%20union&pg=PA75#v=onepage&q=life%20easter%20western%20union&f=true You may scroll through the rest of the issues. Pg 55 of the 1956 has a Bell System ad for an undersea cable. The 1947 doesn't have a Bell ad, but it does have a nice ad for the New York Central railroad on page 58. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <393E1624-ED37-4431-85FD-6218392993AF@roscom.com> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 13:41:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Ninth Circuit rules that gym's unwanted texts are a concrete injury ** Warning: A message part is using unrecognised character set US-ASCIIO Some characters may be lost or incorrect ** Ninth Circuit rules that gym's unwanted texts are a concrete injury, but dismisses TCPA class action because plaintiff consented. By: Dan Deane, Leah Threatte Bojnowski On January 30, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that promotional text messages sent by a gym franchise to a former member constituted a concrete injury, under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), for standing purposes. The ruling provides important guidance on Article III standing following the Supreme Court's ruling last year in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robbins. While post-Spokeo rulings continue to differ from one case to the next, the Ninth Circuit takes a clear position that the invasion of privacy concerns, underlying the TCPA, mean that nearly any unwanted call, or text, sent in violation of the TCPA can constitute a "concrete" injury conferring standing to sue, even when the plaintiff does not suffer any actual financial harm. But the Ninth Circuit went on to affirm the dismissal of the certified class action because the lead plaintiff had consented to receive the texts, and he had never revoked that consent, even when he cancelled his gym membership. http://web20.nixonpeabody.com/tcpa/Pages/TCPA_News.aspx?ID=177 ------------------------------ Message-ID: <740AC52D-3BF2-47D9-BFAC-A2A1472BDC37@roscom.com> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 13:40:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: "Point and click" dialing system ruled not an autodialer "Point and click" dialing system ruled not an autodialer By: Dan Deane In a report and recommendation issued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, a Magistrate Judge found that LiveVox, Inc.'s HCI (Human Call Initiator) dialing system is not an autodialer subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The Magistrate Judge recommended that the Court grant partial summary judgment dismissing some of the plaintiff's claims against Stellar Recovery, Inc., a debt collector hired by Comcast Corporation to collect on past due bills. http://web20.nixonpeabody.com/tcpa/Pages/TCPA_News.aspx?ID=176 ------------------------------ Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1704052044350.29031@panix5.panix.com> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 21:09:57 -0400 From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> Subject: Anti abortion groups use phone geo-locations The Mass. Attorney General, Maura Healey, received complaints that women in the vicinity of reproductive (that is, abortion) clinics were getting disruptive and targetted notices on their phones. Short version: Ms. Healey pointed out the company was violating HIPAA ("Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act") protections. The company decided to settle rather than continue claiming First Amendment protections. To quote from the press release: " Advertising Company Targeted People Entering Reproductive Health Clinics with Ads on Their Mobile Devices ..... Geofencing is a technology that allows digital advertising companies to direct advertisements to users through browsers and applications on their devices when those users are located in a designated territory. ..... In the spring of 2015, Copley [the advertising company] was hired to direct targeted advertisements - using geofencing - to "abortion-minded women" sitting in waiting rooms at health clinics. ..... In its advertising campaign, Copley set mobile geofences at or near reproductive health centers and methadone clinics in Columbus, New York City, Pittsburgh, Richmond, and St. Louis. When a consumer entered the geofenced area near these locations, Copley tagged the consumer's device ID and served advertisements to the consumer's device for up to 30 days. ....... The settlement assures that Copley will not use geofencing technology at or near Massachusetts healthcare facilities to infer the health status, medical condition, or medical treatment of any individual. ===== rest: http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-and-updates/press-releases/2017/2017-04-04-copley-advertising-geofencing.html ======================== Good writeup in the Boston Globe, which includes such info as: "In this case, Copley Advertising used a technique known as "geofencing" that aims messages at cellphone users inside a certain geographic area. Those ads specifically targeted young women at or near reproductive health clinics, Healey said. ...... "We can reach every Planned Parenthood in the US," Copley Advertising chief executive John F. Flynn said in a presentation posted on his Twitter account in 2016. "Copley Advertising can drill down to age and gender." .... According to the settlement with Healey, Copley Advertising used GPS coordinates and other location data generated by smartphones to identify people who entered an area around a health care facility. ===== rest: https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/04/04/healey-halts-digital-ads-targeted-women-reproductive-clinics/AoyPUG8u9hq9bJUAKC5gZN/story.html _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Thu, 06 Apr 2017

Telecom Digest Archives