Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
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Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#2On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes? If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on it make it obvious what happened?
Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#3On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes? If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on it make it obvious what happened?
Do those plans even exist anymore?
Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#4On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes? If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on it make it obvious what happened?
Domestic abuser: "I tallied only 748 minutes of calls across these 9 pages, and after subtracting the 500 included minutes in your plan, we were only charged an additional $12.28 instead of the expected $12.40. Explain yourself!"
Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#5On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes? If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on it make it obvious what happened?
Domestic abuser: "I tallied only 748 minutes of calls across these 9 pages, and after subtracting the 500 included minutes in your plan, we were only charged an additional $12.28 instead of the expected $12.40. Explain yourself!"
If you think domestic abusers won't go to these lengths, you must not know any victims.
Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#6On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes? If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on it make it obvious what happened?
Do those plans even exist anymore?
In Canada you can save $5 by downgrading to plans that would be offensive anywhere else in the early 00s...
Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#7On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes? If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on it make it obvious what happened?
They haven't decided details like this. The actual notice of proposed rulemaking [1] explicitly asks for feedback on this:
> 117. We also seek comment on whether we should establish exceptions...? How often are toll calls or usage-fee-inducing mobile calls and text messages made to hotlines?
> 145. Are there any potential inconsistencies between the rules that we might adopt to ensure the privacy of calls and text messages to hotlines and other Commission rules or state regulations? For example, would omitting toll calls that incur separate charges from consumers’ bills conflict with our truth-in-billing rules? Are there any other potential inconsistencies? Should we explicitly resolve them and, if so, how? What role might disclaimers issued by service providers play?
It also sounds like the sought some industry comment already and had any "insurmountable" objection:
> 112. ...We note that there is no discussion of such concerns in the record in response to the Notice of Inquiry ... Indeed, neither of the two trade associations representing substantially different segments of what would be covered providers and/or providers of wireline voice service raise insurmountable issues relating to selectively omitting calls and text messages from call and text logs.
I also suspect most domestic volence hotlines are toll free.
Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#8On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes? If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on it make it obvious what happened?
They haven't decided details like this. The actual notice of proposed rulemaking [1] explicitly asks for feedback on this: > 117. We also seek comment on whether we should establish exceptions...? How often are toll calls or usage-fee-inducing mobile calls and text messages made to hotlines? > 145. Are there any potential inconsistencies between the rules that we might adopt to ensure the privacy of calls and text me…
> I also suspect most domestic volence hotlines are toll free.
Don't toll free calls placed from cell phones count against minutes just like normal calls do?
Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#9I'm glad that some people are thinking about details like this. It feels like the world is increasingly indifferent to scenarios a typical tech worker has not experienced. Someone actually had to stop and think outside of their bubble, or at least convince their colleagues to think outside of theirs. It took some effort to get that approved, no doubt.
Re: Domestic violence hotline calls will soon be invisible on your family phone plan
#10On cell phone plans that still charge per minute of talk, how is this going to work? Will those carriers make domestic violence hotline calls be free and not count against your total minutes? If not, then won't the resulting discrepancy between the amount of the bill and the number of minutes for each individual call on it make it obvious what happened?
Do those plans even exist anymore?
They're common in Germany, since calls and SMS are rarely used. Mobile data for WhatsApp is far more useful.