The only place you can legally get a copy of the do not call list is the official government web site at www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca. No one else is authorised to sell you the list. It is illegal for us to allow anyone who is not a subscriber to have access to the data on the do not call list. That is why our demo is based on fake information using area codes 222 and 333 which do not exist in Canada.

You cannot legally obtain a list of numbers it is safe to call except by registering on the official site, subscribing to the portion of the list you need, and using the downloaded data to scrub or look up any numbers you intend calling. We will download the list, integrate it with your internal company do not call list, and keep records of all the numbers you check against the list. By doing so we provide you with proof that you are doing due diligence as a telemarketer and making proper and timely use of your subscription.

What you get from the official DNCL web site is raw data - just a list of numbers you should not call. You can use the list with your own scrubbing software or to look up individual numbers using a word processor search facility, but you will still have to maintain and search your own company do not call list, and check your current client list, and record each number you check and call as evidence of due diligence. This is the part we help you with.

So, if you want to use our service, here is what you must do:

1. Register on the official site.
2. Subscribe to the area codes you need.
3. Examine your subscription on the site to locate the download key (an 8 character mix of upper and lower case with numbers).
4. Fill in our application form and submit it, including the registration, subscription and download key data from the previous steps.

It may be that you don't spend your day on the phone cold calling, but as far as the government is concerned, if you ever use telecommunications technology to make an unsolicited call or send a fax to a consumer for the purpose of solicitation, then you are a telemarketer.

Just one such call makes you a telemarketer to the CRTC.

An unsolicited call is one which the consumer did not ask you to make. You might just be innocently following up a referral, but if you call, it will be unsolicited.

If you are selling or promoting a product or service, or requesting money or valuable return, whether directly or indirectly, for yourself or for someone else, then you are engaged in soliciting. If you hire a third-party to make calls for you, they are subject to telemarketing rules and regulations and you could be held responsible for what they do. This covers a wide range of activities, from sales to calls to requesting charitable donations. Any organization has the potential to be a telemarketer so it is important for all organizations to learn about the National Do Not Call List (NDNCL).

Even if you do not engage in any kind of telemarketing, any time you place a call to a consumer, even if that consumer is a client or former customer, you could be asked to place their number on your do not call list (DNCL). If this happens, you must comply, and the same rules will apply as to the National Do Not Call List. That means

• you need a do not call list, even if it is empty today
• you need a procedure for maintaining it
• you need a procedure for distributing it to anyone who might conceivably ever need it
• you need to be able to show that you maintain, distribute and use it

You don't, but you do have to subscribe to the Do Not Call List.

Let's put this in the words of the Do Not Call List operator, from their web site as of October 17th, 2008:

The National Do Not Call List Rules prohibit subscribers from selling, renting, leasing, publishing or otherwise disclosing the National Do Not Call List or any portion thereof to any person outside their organization.
That means, we cannot let you look up numbers on our copy of the list.

The National Do Not Call List Rules allow you to share the National Do Not Call List, or any portion thereof, with a third party who provides you with services to help you comply with the National Do Not Call List Rules.
That means we can use your copy to help you, but we cannot let anyone else use your copy.

If you want the company you hire to access the list directly on your behalf ... they will need your Registration Access Number. They will also need the Subscription Access Number and Download Key for each subscription you want them to access on your behalf.
Which means we can download the list for you, but only if you give us the means to do so.

Read about this for yourself at the official site.

A download key is a code that you give to a third party service organisation to enable them to access your subscription and download your data for you without giving them direct access to your account's registration or subscription by means of your password.

You find the download key by logging on to the National Do Not Call List web site using your password, and looking at each of your subscriptions. The download key will be right there on the screen. It is different for each subscription. Simply copy and paste each download key from the web site into the booking form so that we can put it onto your company subscription records on our system.

We do not want the power to alter your account, so we only ask for the minimum information needed to collect the National Do Not Call List data for you. When we update our records with the National Do Not Call List operator we must reference each download key by means of its registration and subscription codes. That is why we request this information on the booking form.

The National Do Not Call List operator knows when your copy of the list has been downloaded for your use. Taking the download, whether you do it or we do it for you, supports your claim of due diligence. We take care not to allow your data on our server to get out of date. Any time you enter an area code on the Lookup page of Call Tracker you will see the date on which the National Do Not Call List for that area was last downloaded. It must be downloaded every 30 days, but we do it more often than that. (Weekly on Sunday morning at present.)

If you ever decide that you do not want someone to access your data any more, then you simply request a new download key from the National Do Not Call List operator. The old one that you have given out will then be useless. If you do obtain a new download key, be sure to tell us what it is so we can continue to update your copy of the National Do Not Call List.

We do have some list scrubbing capability.

The idea behind list scrubbing is that you submit a list of numbers and get back a 'clean' list that excludes numbers on the Do Not Call List. You could take a list of names, numbers and addresses - a selection from canada411.ca, or your client list - submit it, and receive back a list showing which are safe to call.

Call Tracker users with sufficent security clearance (power users, supervisors and administrators) can access the 'Scrub' menu option. One version was designed to work with canada411 data and will take such a list and return the results, with options to select the OK or Do Not Call numbers.
Another version was made to locate and scrub phone numbers from a selection of columns in a spreadsheet.

Call Tracker was built for people who use their phone for the occasional telemarketing campaign, but mainly use it as an everyday business tool. We are not here to protect the big, busy telemarketers who raised the outcry that led to the Do Not Call List. We want to help the average small business survive the Do Not Call List without getting hurt by investigations and fines. The full answer therefore is we do offer list scrubbing capabilities but for occasional use, not geared to big call centers.

This is not legal advice, just common sense. If you want legal advice, ask a lawyer.

The law is intended to target those who flagrantly ignore, evade or flout it. The best way to protect yourself against fines is to take yourself off the radar by doing your best to follow the rules. A genuine mistake seems unlikely to be penalised if you are making a credible effort to do right. Unfortunately it is not quite enough just to do right, you also should be prepared to prove it. Lawyers call this due diligence.

Apart from making yourself aware of the rules and keeping up to date with changes, due diligence seems to consist mainly of:

1. registering
2. subscribing
3. accessing the list
4. using the list
5. maintaining an internal list
6. using the internal list

The foundation of due diligence is training. Train your staff and have evidence of who was trained and with what material.

(1) Register with the National Do Not Call List - it costs nothing to register. Everyone must register, even people who are exempt. This doesn't make a lot of sense, but regulations sometimes don't even if they need to be obeyed.

(2, 3) If you are not exempt then subscribe and either query the list with the numbers you plan to use or download the list to query at your convenience. If you don't query online at the National Do Not Call List site then be sure to take a fresh copy at least every 30 days.

(4) Make your latest copy of the list available to everyone making sales calls. Keep a record of who has it and when they got it.

Everyone should keep records of the numbers they call and when they called. Also why, and with what results, regardless of whether they got a machine, or even no answer at all.

Each person using the phone should look up every number they call, before they call, unless they have a really good reason not to look (and that reason should be on the call record). It isn't much good having the list if you don't use it, and use should be as automatic a habit as possible.

(5,6) Most of the foregoing also applies to your internal do not call list. You must train on using and maintaining it, keep it up to date and circulate it regularly with documentation of its maintenance and distribution. It has to be used, and the use recorded just like with the National Do Not Call List only more so. Remember that even if you are exempt or have a good excuse to call, the person you intend to call could be on your internal do not call list, and the same rules and penalties apply to it as for the National Do Not Call List!

You may be tempted to ignore the issue of an internal list because no one has ever asked not to be called, and probably no one ever will. Think again. Your internal company do not call list is important, even if it is blank. The procedures to maintain, distribute and use it need to be in place as part of your effort to prove your intent to adhere to the law. Having those procedures in place is a part of due diligence that you cannot afford to skip if you mean to protect yourself properly.