Legal status of inadvertently sent (supposed to be internal) automated test calls which could be viewed as "prank calls" that go accidentally to 7-13 unsuspecting recipients. And more. YANML i know, please read details.
SHORT GROSSLY SIMPLIFIED QUESTION:
I know YANML:
Legally, if you are the cause of ~10 people getting something they characterize a prank call which includes their name, and the ANI was masked so that a random 3rd party is blamed, what jeopardy are you in? The 3rd party knows who you are. The Masking was not intentional, just an unfortunate system setting.
What type of lawyer should you consult?
(looking at context below) is consulting a lawyer at this point wise?
Is the justification that it was an honest mistake that was made while tired and doing an assigned, routine task as part of your job acceptable? Even if there were some lack of protocol that were still ultimately your fault and exacerbated the situation?
As a decent person and morally what is the right course of action (please view context below)
What is the worst case scenario here?
Throw away email = telephony.lawyer@gmail.com
LONG RAMBLING CONTEXT (and blanket apology):
I work for a company that does massive calls for institutions, usually as emergency notifications and "reverse 911" type things. WE DO NOT DO SOLICITATIONS, POLITICAL CALLS, or any of the other stuff that gives broadcast telephony a bad name.
I was preparing to do scheduled, routine testing at 3:00am two nights ago (so we didn't affect users). It was all supposed to be internal tests and I was intending to send test messages to my own cell phone. Easy, no problems.
I was working from home, it was late, I was tired and this is something I do a million times a day as the course of my work. at 10:00pm, before the tests the following morning (and before I tried to catch at least a few hours sleep) I needed to make sure some software that I had just installed on my personal computer was going to work for the 3am tests. I was sending a message essentially in command prompt, back-end method which sends out immediately after you select a list. I thought I had selected a list with only my own personal cell phone and information in it. Somehow I selected the wrong list, it was a list from a customer with live data in it. It was a list I had been working on scripting a solution on earlier that day... somehow I sent it to myself with an ambiguous name thinking it was MY cell phone and test data.
I realized the mistake after the system validation message said "sending to 30 contacts" when I was just supposed to send to one (me)! I immediately tried to terminate the message, but it was too late and around 7-13 people got called.
So here is where it gets sticky. This test call I sent out can insert computer spoken portions, usually the name of someone to whom it is addressed. The accidental list (and my test list of course) both had recipient's names (I work with this type of list a lot as part of my day job... testing is just something I get stuck with at times).
So an unfortunate 2 second oversight and failure to double check which numbers I am sending to gets worse because people are now not just getting a random call, but a random call that features their name in it.
Where it gets more sticky is that the message I sent did not indicate it was a test. Like i said, it was late, I was in a hurry, I was just sending to my self so I wrote some thing for the CPU to say along the lines of free association gibberish that I just typed out on the spot. "message foo bar, go to the playground pick up your baby [name] from play time at [date] thanks bye". or something like that.
Bad form, bad protocol, totally my fault, no excuses. But that is what happened.
Now, the final part, the part that has me worried:
OK, so on the test platforms we use you can define what the outgoing caller ID is (ANI). Usually we just use company numbers, or personal number, or gibberish numbers. In this case it was my test platform but the caller ID number had been initialized in the account by someone else, so I never looked into what the number was. It was a local number so I thought it was one of the companies #s, or some random disconnected number, or ... I don't know, never thought about it.
Again, my responsibility, my fault, my bad. I should have thought about it.
But, when the call went out, I tried to stop it, which I prevented most of the calls, but some still went through. I informed who I needed to inform in the company, fretted over it for 20 minutes but realized there was very little else I could do, and went to sleep so I could do the tests at 3am.
So, when this call goes out to these people, who are understandably confused, a little shocked that it has their name, and some apparently angry, they called the caller ID number back.
It WAS a random number, but apparently, to a real person.
I found this out yesterday when this person called my cell phone and interrogated me about it. I'm not quite sure how he tracked me down (I have thoughts but they are irrelevant).
After at first I honestly did not know who he was. He explained what had happened to him (7 random people from another state called wondering why he was prank calling them) I connected the dots. I apologized, tried to explain in general terms that it was an honest mistake and generally everything I outlined above. I was a bit shocked so I may have admitted more than I should have, and this guy knew who I was through use of Facebook, so I am a bit unnerved
That said, he seems to be OK. By the end of the convo he was not mad at me and we actually chatted in a friendly manner about what he does and a mutual interest, but I don't know. Maybe he is just trying to psych me out or... I don't know. I have not really heard back from him. I called him back (at his request) to follow up, but only got a Voice Mail.
Anyway... This brings me to my question. obviously YANML, but what is the legal status of this? Should I consult a lawyer. And I am willing to admit maybe I should, but what type of lawyer would know something about this type of thing?
And on a decent person, moral level what should I do? Keep in mind, the people who were contacted are off limits. My company has expressly forbid me from contacting them (their customers). So basically what can I do to make it up to random guy?
I am not at all concerned about the company, I have informed the proper people above me, they are handling it to protect their interests. I need to protect my interests. I am 90% sure this will just blow over and maybe I'll buy this guy a beer and be done with it, but I want to prepare for that 10%.
Thanks Metafilter.
posted by anonymous to law & government (10 comments total)
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posted by glider at 8:28 PM on November 21, 2009