Join | Home | Directory | Book | Telemarketers | Lobbying | Links | Site Map . In 1998 the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) tried to strike a blow against your right to be left alone, in favor of their practice of barging into your home and interrupting your dinner. . Although their function is valuable to American society, CASRO (a telemarketing- research industry trade association) has consistently refused to recognize that residents have a fundamental right to be left alone at home, free of intrusions by those they seek to avoid. We asked Diane Bowers (CASRO's Director) the following simple question -
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"Does a telemarketing-research firm have a duty to abide by the request
of an elderly handicapped resident who asks that firm to never call again,
regardless of the nature of the survey?"
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Incredibly, this professional 'question asker' refused to answer the question! But she did issue a press release in an attempt to support CASRO's peculiar (non-)position. That press release can be read here .Sadly for Diane Bowers and CASRO, the Reuters News Service saw the press release and did their own story on the subject. Reuters quoted one of the nation's most respected privacy experts (Alan F. Westin, professor emeritus of public law and government at Columbia University), who stated, "For CASRO to say that they've got to pursue every respondent with intrusion is an insupportable argument,''. You can read the entire Reuters story here .
Now, if you don't mind, please act like socially responsible adults, and respect our right to be left alone. That is, unless you insist on paying Private Citizen members $500 when you interrupt our dinner.