How long is the blocking of harassing phone calls guaranteed by the registration in the public Register of Oppositions? It is not known. More precisely: in theory, and according to what has been explained so far, it would be “for an indefinite period”; in practice, and according to what was communicated to the people at the end of the procedure, one day only.
Let’s explain: on July 28th we tried to register our mobile number to the RPO using the phone concerned, one of the 4 ways made available (we explained them here). We called the number that was since last April, and up to a couple of days before the entry into force of the Register indicated as the one to call: it had been changed, it no longer worked, they gave us another one, they gave us the wrong one, we found the right one and started the procedure. As we wrote, “it didn’t go very well”. E afterwards, things also got worse.
How to sign up
Stop unwanted calls on mobile phones: how the Opposition Register works
by Emanuele Capone
Doubts about the duration of protection
At the end of the phone call on July 28th, a recorded voice told us that our case had been taken over and would be processed within one working day: it was a Thursday, so the following Friday, after 24 hours, we tried to call back. Our number was actually “registered in the Telephone Register”, but “with telemarketing consents canceled until July 28, 2022”.
Given that it was July 29thit seemed strange to us and we chose the option to “renew your subscription and cancel the telemarketing consents again”: again, a recorded voice told us that our case had been taken care of and would be processed within a working day.
It arrives on Saturday 30 July. After another 24 hours, we make a new phone call, and we receive practically the same answer: “Telemarketing consents canceled until July 29, 2022”.
At that point we did a different thing and asked for a numerical code to manage our file from the Registry site: inserting it on registrodelleopposizioni.it, the outcome does not change, and our number is protected only for one day. A day already passed, by the way.
The decline of customer service
by Riccardo Luna
Here there are two problems: what does it mean that we are registered in the Telephone Register? Is it the same as the Opposition Register and another way to call telephone directories? And if it’s the same, why create confusion and call it differently? Then there is the question of duration of protection, that we are not the only ones to have noticed: many people have written to us, or have commented and posted photos on social networks, asking what that sentence meant and why the consents were canceled for just one day.
Answers that don’t respond
Assuming that this cannot really be the case, because this would defeat the very purpose of the Registry, we can assume that it is a communicative short circuit: given that, as can be understood from the FAQ published online, “the registration to the RPO becomes fully effective after 15 days from the telephone opposition or 30 days from the postal opposition”, it is possible that in this time interval (between inscription and actual effectiveness) the number results in a kind of limbo. And what is communicated is not the duration of the protection, but the date from which the registration started.
The annual report
The digital humanism of the Privacy Guarantor: beware of the Social War
by Arturo Di Corinto
It is a hypothesis, because of there are no official answers: always in the FAQ, we read that “the registration to the RPO of the telephone number and / or the corresponding postal address (if present in the public telephone directories) is indefinite”. We are sure that at the Ministry of Economic Development, responsible for the RPO, someone has the answer to this question that many people ask: perhaps it would be appropriate to communicate it to people, perhaps choosing a less cryptic phrase to inform that the procedure has gone to successful and will end after 15-30 days.
The public directories and the wrong site: the other oddities
Also because this that’s not the only thing that doesn’t work (or in any case it does not work as it should): during our first phone call, that of 28 July, we accepted to be registered in the public registers of telephone numbers, an essential condition to be able to enjoy the protection offered by the public register of oppositions. At the moment, however, our number is included in the Register, but “it cannot be entered in the Postal Register because it is not present in the public telephone directories”. Which is strange, since we had given express consent for it to be.
From July 27th stop to telemarketing on mobile phones. How to register in the Register of Oppositions
by Arcangelo Rociola, Emanuele Capone
Then there is the question of the site, which has some navigation and interface problems (from many pages, the links to connect to the Mise site or to return to the homepage are present, but they do not work or have not worked for a long time) and that is often went down in the first two days of the service.
On July 27, many people complained of difficulty connecting, slow page opening, interrupted or blocked procedures due to connection timeouts. The same happened on day 28, while on day 29 he was briefly offline in the morning and then again for over two hours in the afternoon. More: on Saturday 30 July, in the Operators section, the message still appeared to inform that “from 15 to 17 on Friday 29 July the operator functions will be under maintenance: in this time interval it will not be possible to access the electronic Registration form and ‘Reserved area. We apologize for the inconvenience”. Discomfort which, however, had ended over 24 hours earlier.
In short: perhaps it would have served, and still would have been needed, a little more care and attention in the management of a service that has been awaited for years and about which people are already very skeptical and doubtful. Even without all these problems.