Assemblyman Clyde Vanel, D-Queens Village, is pictured earlier this year in Albany.

State lawmakers will have the opportunity next session to review legislation that builds on the state’s Do Not Call registry.

Assemblyman Clyde Vanel, D-Queens Village, is sponsoring a bill (A.9029) that would create the Do Not Disturb registry. The registry would allow state residents to opt out of unsolicited commercial marketing communications via call, text messages, email, facsimile, or physical mail to their home address.

Texas recently expanded its Do Not Call registry to include telemarketing texts. Senate Bill 140 means any message designed to persuade you to buy, rent, or claim a product or service is now covered under the same rules as telemarketing calls. Vanel’s proposal goes further than the Texas law. It would include in its definition of unsolicited commercial marketing communication any telemarketing call, e-mail, physical mail, text message or fax whose primary purpose is the commercial advertisement or promotion of commercial product or service, including content on an internet website operated for a commercial purpose made by or on behalf of a covered person.

“The increase in unsolicited commercial marketing communications has proliferated over the past few decades. Studies show that 160 billion spam emails are sent every day, accounting for 46% of daily emails sent,” Vanel wrote in his legislative justification. “In addition to e-mail, the numbers for telephone, text, fax, and home mail have been increasing tremendously each year. Thus, as consumers are being increasingly inundated with unsolicited communications from both good and bad actors, it heightens the risk of making residents of this state susceptible to deceptive practices, scams, and fraudulent schemes as they will be unaware of which messages are legitimate and which are not. Residents who place their information on the registry proposed by this bill will know for certain that any unsolicited marketing communications that come their way will be either unlawful or scams – in either case, they will have a good reason to not respond to them.”

Businesses would have to adhere to the proposed law if it has made a certain number of communications over a period of five years: 5,000 unsolicited mailings, 10,000 unsolicited emails, 1,000 unsolicited faxes or one unsolicited telemarketing call or text message. Violations could result in a $1,500 fine.

“Apart from scams, the receipt of such communications is also a nuisance to residents as such communications clutter their inboxes, fill their devices with unwanted messages, and consume their time and attention, thereby disrupting their daily lives and diminishing the privacy and peace they should be able to expect in their personal spaces and on their devices,” Vane wrote. “Specifically with digital spam, like text and email, this clutter can become so large and can so easily obfuscate messages that need attention, that real messages pay end up being deleted. Further, the amount of space these messages take up will cost consumers as most email providers do not offer unlimited space.”

Federal law requires unsolicited commercial emails to include opt-out or “unsubscribe” instructions. Additionally, many email providers have features that help block unwanted email addresses and unsubscribe from email lists. They also usually have spam filters, “junk email” folders, or other filters that can be used to mark spam or junk email.

Cell phones often have an option to filter or block spam or texts from unknown senders. Additionally, wireless providers may have tools or services to block calls or text messages.

Although there is no surefire way of removing a name from all marketing mailing lists, some can be stopped by visiting DMAchoice.org. This do-not-mail service is run by the Association of National Advertisers, which is a trade association of marketing companies. It can help stop most mail from companies from whom someone hasn’t made a purchase. There is a small fee for registration, which lasts for 10 years.

To stop getting prescreened credit and insurance offers, go to OptOutPrescreen.com or call 888-567-8688. This is the consumer credit reporting industry’s website for consumers to opt in or out of these offers. Opting out will remove your name from mailing lists that are supplied by the major consumer credit reporting companies. You can choose to opt out for five years or permanently.

“Furthermore, the increase of such communications also has the effect of diminishing residents’ trust in urgent communications as there is no current way to prevent entities from sending unsolicited marketing communications before they are first sent. For example, existing law requires unsolicited messages to include opt-outs. However, the messages must be sent first before one can opt-out,” Vanel wrote. “Finally, the existence of a statewide do not disturb registry may have the effect of lowering marketing costs to businesses, as businesses will be aware of consumers who have a lower likelihood of positively responding to their commercial marketing communications.”