Does the EU have a do not contact phone number registry?
We have in the US https://www.donotcall.gov/ it works well for unwanted phone and sms.
You can register your home or mobile phone for free.
Also note that the Phone App on Kompakt does support blocking calls but sometimes that’s not desirable.
This is a very good question. I looked into it & there isn’t a single EU-wide “Do Not Call” registry. The EU sets the privacy framework, but each member state decides how unsolicited marketing calls are handled nationally.
For example, Italy has a national Do Not Call registry, the Registro Pubblico delle Opposizioni, where people can register both landline and mobile numbers. Telemarketers are required to screen their calling lists against it.
Poland, on the other hand, is different. There isn’t really a need for a U.S.-style Do Not Call list because Polish law is essentially opt-in rather than opt-out. So, you give companies permission to call you and contact you & set the method which they can contact you.
Under Article 398 of the current Prawo komunikacji elektronicznej, companies may not use telephones or automated calling systems to send commercial communications, including direct marketing, unless the subscriber or user has previously consented.
For example, I got an email over the weekend asking me to rate my experience at Sephora. At the end of the survey, I was asked if they could contact me with marketing promos. There was an option to blanket click YES- and you can also choose via what method- email, snail mail or text/phone.
Of course, I clicked NO.
I doubt that anyone who cares about privacy will register publicly just to NOT receive something.
The registry works, but I understand your concern. Change your number. It’s not the phone, it’s the phone number spammers call. The problem is your number is on spammer’s lists.
That is probably true, however, changing the number is a huge effort because then dozens of people and institutions need to be informed of the change. Wouldn’t it be much nicer if the phone had a working spam blocker from the start, the way cheap $40 dumbphones have it ? And if it works on them, why not on the Kompakt ?
There are two very different layers of call blocking, and the distinction matters here.
The options offered by Mudita Kompakt are device-level blocking options. The Kompakt can block hidden numbers, numbers not in Contacts, and individually listed numbers.
That explains an important limitation that Kompakt itself isn’t identifying spam. “Block unrecognised numbers” really means only accept numbers that are saved in Contacts. It doesn’t consult a spam-number database and decide, “this is probably a scammer.” Likewise, manually blocking +48 12 123 4567 only blocks that number; it doesn’t necessarily help if the spammer calls tomorrow from +48 12 123 4568.
So conceptually, the flow looks like this:
Caller → mobile network → Kompakt → Kompakt checks blocking rule → reject/allow
For a user like @YYZ , however, perhaps looking into network-level blocking, may actually be the better solution. In that case the flow becomes:
Caller → mobile network → carrier detects/blocks call → Kompakt never receives it
Depending on the carrier and country, network-side options can include spam/scam-call filtering, blocking anonymous/private callers, blocking specific categories of calls, anti-spam SMS filtering, or allowing customers to report numbers so the carrier can block or flag them across its network. Because this happens at the carrier level, it doesn’t matter whether the SIM is in a Kompakt, iPhone, Android phone, etc.
There is also a voicemail wrinkle. Device-level blocking does not necessarily control what happens upstream at the carrier. When Kompakt rejects a call, the network may interpret that rejection in a way that causes the call to go to voicemail, depending on the carrier’s conditional call-forwarding configuration. That’s why two Kompakt users on different networks can see different behavior even though they have the same blocking setting enabled.
There was a user on the FORUM, some time ago, who complained that they were getting tons of spam Voicemails and thought that somehow Mudita Kompakt could help with some better settings. However, it was more of a carrier issue because the call was never reaching Mudita Kompakt and ringing, but the carrier was forwarding it to voicemail. Unfortunately, Kompakt could not control that.
Spammers use different numbers all the time. Once you have acknowledged that you are an actual person, just once, they got you.
When I move my sim between devices I still receive calls and messages to that number - I am curious if this is correct. I have a $39.99 dumb phone it gets calls and SMS, but no spam, because I registered the number, did you try a $40 phone?
@YYZ - regarding your number being “public” in the registry: Your phone number, but not your e-mail address or other information we may collect or generate when you register, may be disclosed to telemarketers, sellers, and their agents so they can determine or verify that you do not wish to receive telemarketing calls.
Yes, my grandpa would say someone is barking up the wrong tree.