I went to the ChaCha web site and found this:

“When you visit the Site, use the Services, or contact ChaCha by other means, you consent to receive communications from ChaCha.ChaCha may contact you electronically or by other means ChaCha chooses, and ChaCha may contact you at any place that ChaCha may locate you.You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that ChaCha provides to you via text message, email, or other form of electronic communication shall satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.”

They continue:

“The CAN-SPAM act, state and federal Do-Not-Call registries, and the Telephone Consumer Privacy Act of 1991 exist to prevent unsolicited telemarketing calls and the use of automatic dialing machines to call wireless devices, not to prevent such calls to persons who have requested to be contacted. Under Federal rules and those of most states, “safe harbors” exist to allow a consumer to expressly grant permission to be contacted even though they have registered their phone number with a state or federal Do-Not-Call registry. By accepting these Terms and submitting a query or request to ChaCha via voice, text, or internet, you expressly agree that we may send a response to your queries to your wireless device or email via an SMS text message or email or WAP Push Message or MMS message. You are granting express permission to receive our response even if you are registered on a Do-Not-Call registry.”

Here’s the important part:

“You expressly agree that, as part of the Services provided by ChaCha, you may receive promotional communications, alerts, and **third party advertising materials** from ChaCha via text message. You may stop receiving such text messages by emailing your request to opt-out, along with your wireless telephone number, to chacha_help@chacha.com, or following any opt-out instructions in the relevant text message.” (emphasis mine)

You can’t say they didn’t warn you. But a mention in the main article that you are consenting to be contacted by telemarketers would have been nice.

Dennis

My first thought was, am I forming a business relationship so the Do-Not-Call List doesn’t apply, or are they generating a giant proven live list of phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses? It’s hard not to be cynical.

Or maybe I should just call ChaCha.

D

Call your local public library. The librarians there are information professionals, and will find you the right answer.

Don’t know where to reach your public library? Look it up at http://www.publiclibraries.com.