SMS Singapore - Do Not Call Registry (DNC)
Effectively on 2 Jan 2014, a new regulation has been announced in Singapore which requires anyone sending promotion/marketing messages to a Singapore phone number to first check whether that number is listed in the new national Do Not Call Registry.
Failure to perform this check against the Registry can be an infringement of Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). The Registry forms part of the new PDPA rules, the rest of which will take effect on 2 July 2014. Breaches of the new legislation could result in fines of up to S$1 million.
Starting from 2 January 2014, the Do Not Call (DNC) provisions under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA) prohibits organisations from sending certain marketing messages (in the form of voice calls, text or fax messages) to Singapore telephone numbers, including mobile, fixed-line, residential and business numbers, registered with the DNC Registry. Such marketing messages have one or more of the following purposes:
- Offer to supply, advertise or promote goods or services;
- Advertise/promote suppliers or prospective suppliers of goods or services; or
- Supply/advertise/promote land, interests in land or business/investment opportunities.
Whether your organisation is directly sending such marketing messages, causing the message to be sent or authorising another organisation to do so, your organisation has to ensure that such messages are not sent to Singapore telephone numbers registered with the DNC Registry.
Organisations sending marketing messages to Singapore telephone numbers will need to:
- Check with the DNC Registry, unless you have the recipients’ clear and unambiguous consent in written or other accessible form for sending the marketing message to the Singapore telephone number.
- If your organisation is sending a text or fax message, include clear and accurate information identifying your organisation as well as contact details within the message. This allows the recipient to contact you for clarifications, if necessary.
- If your organisation is making a voice call, ensure that the calling identity, or phone number from which the message is sent out from, is not concealed.
The DNC Registry, however, does not cover messages sent for other purposes, such as service calls or reminder messages sent by organisations to render services bought by the individual. Messages for pure market survey or research and those that promote charitable or religious causes are also not covered under the DNC provisions.
Telemarketing calls or messages of a commercial nature that target businesses are also excluded from the DNC Registry rules. For the list of messages that are excluded under the PDPA, please refer to the Eighth Schedule of the PDPA (please refer to the link below labelled “The PDPA Legislation”).
Detailed descriptions for the operations of the DNC registry (DNC registry for organisations) as well as business rules, registration and fees (DNC Briefing Slides) officially distributed by the PDPC can be found on the Dialogue webpage for Singapore here.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
DNC How-to video for organizations (highly recommended): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmHNeKjkhL4&feature=youtu.be
The DNC and your business:
http://www.pdpc.gov.sg/organisations/do-not-call-registry-your-business
DNC Business rules and fees:
http://www.pdpc.gov.sg/organisations/do-not-call-registry-your-business/do-not-call-registry-business-rules
The PDPC site:
http://www.pdpc.gov.sg/
Frequently Asked Questions
- When will the DNC Provision comes into effect?
- How do I check my organisation's contact database?
- What are the phone numbers usually registered with DNC?
- Does the telephone numbers registered with DNS expires?
- Is there a validity for the phone numbers submitted to DNC Registry?
- In what circumstances do we have to check the mobile phone numbers with DNC Registry?
- If I managed to obtained consents from my customers and they are registered with the DNC Registry, can we send out marketing SMS to him or her?
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When will the DNC Provision comes into effect?
PDPC has announced that starting from 2nd January 2014, all tele-marketing phone list needs to go through DNC Registry.
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How do I check my organisation's contact database?
Currently we are providing a "Bulk Filtering" method. You can upload your entire contact database in a CSV file at one go via iSMS. The filtered results will be returned to your account after at least 24 hours. Our bulk sms system will send an email notification to you once the results are ready.
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What are the phone numbers usually registered with DNC?
Currently, the DNC Registry accepts only 8-digit Singapore telephone numbers (mobile, home & office numbers). Singapore phone numbers that begins with 3, 6, 8 or 9 can be registered.
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Does the telephone numbers registered with DNS expires?
No, it will not expire until the telephone number owners removes the number from the DNC Registry personally.
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Is there a validity for the phone numbers submitted to DNC Registry?
Yes and PDCP has rolled out a schedule since its launching. As a reminder, never use contact databases that is already expired.
| Date of Results from the DNC Registry |
Duration |
| 2 January to 31 May 2014 (both dates inclusive) |
60 Days |
| 1 June to 1 July 2014 (both dates inclusive) |
Valid until 31 July 2014 (transition period) |
| From 2 July 2014 onwards |
30 Days |
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In what circumstances do we have to check the mobile phone numbers with DNC Registry?
All focus will placed on telemarketing messages such as SMS marketing to consumers.
Message types below will not be covered under DNC Provisions:
- Business-to-business SMS Marketing
- market survey / research
- promote charitable / religious causes
- personal messages sent by individuals
- public messages sent by government agencies
- political messages
However, if an individual opts out, you cannot rely on the exemption and must stop sending exempted messages to that individual 30 days after the individual opts out.
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If I managed to obtained consents from my customers and they are registered with the DNC Registry, can we send out marketing SMS to him or her?
You may send him or her marketing sms after your customer has given clear and unambiguous consent in written or other accessible form, regardless of when he or she is registered with the DNC Registry.
However, your customer could withdraw the consent and not receive future marketing SMS-es.
If you need to contact us, please feel free to do so. You will find our address, and phone numbers here.
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