TRACED Robocall legislation signed by Trump

The rise of unsolicited robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing prompted grave concern among US legislators. This led Congress to pass the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act. Now, with Donald Trump's signature, the TRACED Act has become law.

What does TRACED do? The new law increases the FCC's power to impose punishments for robocalling, without warning. The fines levied could rise to $10,000 per call. Offending robocallers can now be prosecuted by the US Justice Department.

White House Press Secretary, Stephanie Grisham, says "this historic legislation will provide American consumers with even greater protection against annoying unsolicited robocalls."

The law will also help tackle the issue of caller ID spoofing. TRACED requires US mobile phone carriers to implement authentication tech similar to STIR/SHAKEN (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited/ Secure Handling of Asserted information using Tokens), to establish a trusted communications ecosystem, safe from robocall abuse.

TRACED received widespread bipartisan support in Congress. Ajit Pai, chairman of the FCC said this: "I applaud Congress for working in a bipartisan manner to combat illegal robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing."