Updates
EPIC, NCLC and 24 Organizations Urge FCC to Protect Consumer Privacy and Security in Implementing AI Robocall Mitigation Tools
October 15, 2024

EPIC joined the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and 24 other organizations in strongly urging the Federal Communications Commission to preserve consumer privacy while it considers new solutions to prevent unwanted robocalls and scam calls in light of the prevalence of AI.
The Commission inquired about the use of AI powered tools to monitor live calls and evaluate their scam risk. These tools may be deployed at the network level, meaning telephone subscribers’ conversations could be monitored. Robocalls and scam calls continue to berate consumers, and while new tools seem needed to combat a scourge that costs consumers billions of dollars every year, that cannot come at the expense of communications privacy. The FCC also proposed rules governing disclosures for robocalls and robotexts made with AI, as well as how to ensure people who use assistive devices are not adversely impacted by these rules.
EPIC and its coalition partners encouraged the FCC to take a three-tiered approach to consent involving AI generated calls. EPIC recommended that the FCC require explicit consent from the contacted party to receive an AI generated call or text that is interactive, as well as a disclosure at the beginning of the interaction that it is being facilitated by an AI. The consumer advocates recommended in instances where AI generated speech is mimicking a specific person, that the FCC require specific consent to receive calls from the person the AI is mimicking; absent this prior consent, the call should disclose that it is an AI generated voice at the beginning. For informational calls that do not mimic specific individuals (e.g. an obviously automated appointment reminder from a doctor’s office), no additional disclosure or consent should be required beyond what is necessary for any call made using an artificial or prerecorded voice.
EPIC also fully supported an exemption for artificial voices made with an assistive device so those who rely on these devices to communicate are not adversely affected.
In response to the FCC’s inquiry on using AI tools to stymie robocalls and scam calls, EPIC and its partners voiced vehement opposition. The FCC should not permit call monitoring at a network level. This indiscriminate invasion of people’s privacy is egregious, especially when more privacy-conscious, consumer-controlled solutions are already available. Network level call monitoring adds new cybersecurity vulnerabilities to critical communications infrastructure while violating any phone caller’s reasonable assumption of privacy – that by placing a phone call, their conversation is not automatically monitored nor data from their phone call shared more broadly than what is strictly necessary to complete the call. EPIC and its partners advocated for consumer-controlled, device level solutions while imploring the commission to use the regulatory tools already at its disposal.
EPIC routinely participates in regulatory and legislative processes concerning robocalls and files amicus briefs in robocall cases. EPIC has also published two reports, Generating Harms and Generating Harms II, explaining why Generative AI needs strong safeguards.

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