TRAI-RBI pilot to help select customers review, revoke consents given for promotional content
New Delhi, Dec 10
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday said that SMS notifications will be sent shortly to select customers by the telecom service providers (TSPs), to allow them to digitally review, manage, and revoke the consents they had previously given for promotional communications.
Under the joint TRAI–RBI Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) pilot to digitise and standardise consent for promotional communications, SMS notifications will begin to be sent shortly to select customers (limited in number), according to Ministry of Communications.
The pilot starts with nine TSPs and 11 major banks, and aims to address long-standing gaps in legacy consent practices and test the readiness of the unified digital consent platform before nationwide rollout.
“A total of nine TSPs and eleven banks - SBI, PNB, Axis Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and Punjab & Sind Bank - are participating in the pilot project,†said the ministry.
As part of system testing on a sample basis, customers whose old consents have been uploaded, may receive SMS notifications from short code 127000 sent by their respective TSPs.
These notifications will be issued only to a limited subset of customers whose consents have been uploaded by the banks on the digital platform, and are intended to assess platform readiness across TSPs, banks, and the consent registry.
Customers who do not receive such communication need not be concerned, as the pilot is presently limited in scope and intended for full-scale rollout only later.
Each SMS will contain a standard advisory message along with a secure link directing the customer to the authorised Consent Management Page of the TSP.
Through this portal, customers will be able to view the consents recorded by these 11 banks against their mobile numbers, and decide whether they wish to continue, modify, or revoke any of these consents.
The consents visible on the portal will reflect all old consents uploaded by the participating banks. No personal or financial information will be sought at any stage, and customers are advised to act on the SMS received only from the 127000 short code. Action on these SMS by the customers will be optional. However, if they wish to make changes to their consents displayed on the portal, they can do so.
The banks have now begun uploading sample sets of old consents onto the shared digital platform established for the pilot. Besides, the new consents acquired by the participating banks will also be uploaded onto the digital platform, the ministry informed.
— IANS
Reader Comments
Good initiative by TRAI and RBI. But I'm a bit skeptical. Will the banks actually upload all old consents properly? Often the problem starts there. The pilot with major banks is a good test. Fingers crossed.
Please ensure the SMS and link are very clearly from a legitimate source. With so many phishing scams, people might be hesitant to click. The 127000 short code is a good start. Public awareness is key.
As someone who recently moved to India, the volume of promotional communication was overwhelming. A unified digital platform sounds excellent. Hope it's user-friendly for everyone, including those not very tech-savvy.
This is a welcome move for consumer rights. For years, we gave consent without realizing it's permanent or hard to revoke. Giving people control back is the right thing to do. Kudos to the regulators.
I appreciate the step, but respectfully, this feels like fixing a symptom. The root cause is how easily our data is shared and how 'consent' is buried in fine print. We need stronger data protection laws alongside such platforms.
Hope my bank (HDFC) is part of this pilot! The amount of loan
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.