One study produced for PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 83% of outsourcing companies in India, home of the second-largest number of U.S. call-center positions, had information security breaches during 2005. The Philippines is now the leading host of offshore call centers for U.S. companies.

 

A more recent study published by the Communications Workers of America said that foreign call centers can expose Americans’ financial information to warrantless inspection by the U.S. government, because the details are not protected under the Fourth Amendment.

 

Critics of call-center off-shoring have introduced legislation in Congress that would help relocate these types of jobs back to the U.S. The United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Timothy Bishop (D-New York), would give consumers the right to ask where a customer service representative is based and ask for an U.S.-based operator instead.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Who Protects Info You Give To Offshored Call Centers? (by Dave Johnson, Smirking Chimp)

Why Shipping Call Center Jobs Overseas Hurts Us Back Home (Communications Workers of America) (pdf)

H.R.3596 - United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act (OpenCongress)