Pursuant to the Personal Data Protection Act of 2012, Singapore launched a Do Not Call Registry in January 2014. The Registry aims to reduce unwanted telemarketing calls. Telemarketers are not allowed to call or text people who register their telephone numbers with the Registry. The Registry would benefit both consumers and marketers.

The project proposes to evaluate the impact of the Do Not Call Registry through a randomized controlled trial. It includes a recruitment of around 120 students at the National University of Singapore into the study and randomly assigned them to either register or not register. The students will be expected to answer a simple questionnaire providing basic information – gender, age, country of birth, telemarketing that they have experienced.

All participants are required to keep an online log of telemarketing calls and SMSes from December 2013 to May 2014.

The impact of the Registry will be evaluated using a difference-in-differences method. This will compare the rate of telemarketing calls and text messages before and after 1 March 2014 (when the registrations would take effect) in the :

• Treatment group — those who did register with the DNC Registry
• Control group — those who did not register with the DNC Registry.