The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has a pilot project for digital consent management with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other banks. This emerged following complaints about customers receiving spam communications after purchasing a service or goods. Spectra Law managing partner Asim Abbas, with multiple decades of experience in data and technology matters, explains the pilot project.
Q1. What issue does the TRAI aim to tackle with the pilot project?
The project aims to tackle the widespread issue of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) by implementing distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based verifiable digital consent given by customers. It will be the foundation for sector-wise scaling of the digital consent ecosystem.
No commercial communication or promotional voice call can be made to a person without their preference or explicit consent, as recorded by the consent registrar on the DLT platform. The digital consent acquisition (DCA) process is a facility to seek, maintain and revoke the consent of customers.
The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018, mandate that for promotional voice calls, the sender should use a 140-level number series and use the DLT platform for the verification of digital consent. However, due to its non-implementation, multiple complaints have been received about UCC.
Q2. Why is the telecom regulator partnering with banks on the pilot project?
Banks are among the largest and most sophisticated senders of commercial messages in the country, whether for marketing new products, upselling services, or transactional alerts. Partnering with banks allows the TRAI to test the DCA framework in a data-rich, high-communication industry where consent is critical. Banks also suffer brand damage from financial spam and fraud, giving them direct incentive to collaborate. By aligning the telecom and banking sectors, the TRAI and RBI can create a cross-sectoral consent infrastructure that can help to streamline and enhance the consumer experience.
Q3. How does the proposed digital framework differ from the one that already exists within banks?
The existing framework is to obtain consent either through service agreements or some online or offline unverifiable mechanism. Such consent is not DLT-based and it is not possible to do scrubbing on a real-time basis by access providers to ascertain the consent.
In the proposed framework, the digital consent is recorded by the consent registrar, who is an authorised entity responsible for maintaining the consent register. The consent register is a distributed ledger for consent, having all relevant details of consent acquired by the sender. The framework requires that consent be acquired through an approved, independent digital platform for a specific purpose or duration.
Q4. How does participation in the pilot project affect the banks’ business and marketing operations?
Initially, participation might slow down the marketing pipeline of banks due to the need to revalidate consents through the new system. However, in the long run, this initiative stands to increase trust and engagement with users. Clear, auditable consents mean fewer complaints, reduced regulatory penalties, and better deliverability rates as messages are sent only to genuinely consenting users.
Q5. The pilot project is aimed at banks. Which industry could benefit from a similar project?
Based on the success of this project, it may be applied in sectors like e-commerce, insurance, financial services, health care etc., in a phased manner.
