Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: FTC seeking help of hackers in combating illegal robocalls, (Jun 16, 2014)

In its efforts to battle against illegal phone spammers, the FTC is hoping to enlist the help of attendees at a hacking conference. The FTC has launched a contest at the DEF CON 22 Hacking Conference, challenging attendees to build the ultimate “honeypot” to lure in and identify perpetrators of illegal robocalls. A robocall honeypot is an information system designed to attract robocallers, which can help experts and law enforcement authorities understand and combat illegal calls.

The new FTC challenge, called “Zapping Rachel”, will consist of three stand-alone contests hosted August 7-10, 2014, at one of the world’s oldest and largest hacker conferences. This challenge is another step in the FTC’s ongoing campaign against illegal, prerecorded telemarketing calls. In 2012, the agency hosted its first public robocall challenge, which garnered nearly 800 submissions, and stimulated the market to produce new robocall blocking technologies for consumers.

Complete rules for the contest will be posted to Challenge.gov.

News: FederalTradeCommissionNews Privacy