Ledger Technology to Tackle Spam

Syllabus: GS3/Cybersecurity

Context

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will be using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to register spam preferences from customers.

About

• Spam rules will be tightened to make commercial messages traceable, the TRAI has indicated.
• Spam messages and calls refer to unwanted, unsolicited communications typically sent for advertising, scams, or other malicious purposes.

Concerns of the Spam

• Privacy Invasion: Spam calls and messages often lead to a breach of personal privacy, as they can involve unwanted sharing of personal information.
• Scams and Fraud: Many spam messages and calls are used to deceive individuals into sharing sensitive data (like bank details), leading to financial loss and identity theft.
• Overload and Disruption: The sheer volume of spam messages and calls can overwhelm users, disrupt daily life, and cause annoyance.
• Regulatory Challenges: While there are laws like the TRAI guidelines to curb spam, enforcement is often weak, and new tactics from spammers outpace regulatory efforts.
• Lack of Awareness: Many people, especially in rural areas, are unaware of how to block or report spam, making them more vulnerable to scams.

Regulations of Spam in India: 

• The TRAI regulates the telecom industry, and its main role is in regulating Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), the official name for spam. 
• DND Registry: Starting in 2007, the regulator implemented a do-not-disturb (DND) registry, if a telecom customer signs up to the DND registry, they are not supposed to get any spam calls or SMS messages.
• TCCCPR 2018: Under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), 2018, telemarketers who called or sent messages to DND-registered customers would receive warnings.
  • In case and if enough warnings accumulated, they would be blacklisted from sending messages to telecom operators.
• In 2024, TRAI mandated that DND reporting be made available on every telecom provider’s app.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT)

• TRAI has mandated the telcos to use a blockchain ledger, also known as a distributed ledger.
  • Blockchain as a technology allows for so-called immutability, which means that every stakeholder involved in a transaction has a reliable, un-tamperable version of the same data. 
• Features: 
  • It will store a constantly-updated list of approved senders of SMS messages. 
  • Telcos would also be required to approve specific formats of messages. 
  • This has been one of the most stringent rules that have been issued to fight SMS spam anywhere in the world. 
• Significance:
  • This will make sure that telcos would have a complete record of who issued a message before it is sent to an SMS gateway. 
  • This was aimed at plugging a crucial flaw in the system that would allow anyone to register on the blockchain solutions.

Other Measures to Flag Spams: 

• Sanchar Saathi Portal: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched the Sanchar Saathi portal, which has a reporting site called Chakshu. 
• DoT has partnered with law enforcement, banks, and other stakeholders in order to accept reports of “suspected fraudulent” calls and messages.
• It has moved to cancel lakhs of numbers that are associated with unauthorised telemarketers and scammers.
• It also set up the Telecom Security Operation Centre at its New Delhi headquarters to monitor suspicious internet traffic in real time. 
• Firms like Airtel have taken steps to declare suspicious calls using Artificial Intelligence as “Suspected Spam,” a move that is being replicated by other telcos as well.
  • The telco has also started labelling international calls on smartphones.

Source: TH