S 4537: Requires a call-blocking service to be provided in state contracts that include procurement of a voice service; provides that a voice service provider shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability for failure of a call-blocking service to block a call, or mistakenly blocking a call that should not have been blocked.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4537 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 6, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. SKOUFIS, ADDABBO, WALCZYK -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance AN ACT to amend the state finance law, in relation to requiring a call- blocking service to be provided in state contracts that include procurement if a voice service The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 2 149 to read as follows: 3 § 149. Automated call software. 1. As used in this section: 4 (a) "voice service" (i) means any service that is interconnected with 5 the public switched telephone network and that furnishes voice communi- 6 cations to an end user using resources from the North American Numbering 7 Plan or any successor to the North American Numbering Plan adopted by 8 the commission under section 251(e)(1) of the federal Communications Act 9 of 1934, as amended; and (ii) includes (A) transmissions from a tele- 10 phone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to a telephone 11 facsimile machine; and (B) without limitation, any service that enables 12 real-time, two-way voice communications, including any service that 13 requires internet protocol-compatible customer premises equipment and 14 permits out-bound calling, whether or not such service is one-way or 15 two-way voice over internet protocol; 16 (b) "caller identification information" means information provided to 17 an end user by a caller identification service regarding the telephone 18 number of, or other information regarding the origination of, a call 19 made using a voice service; 20 (c) "caller identification service" means any service or device 21 designed to provide the user of the service or device with the telephone 22 number of, or other information regarding the origination of, a call 23 made using a voice service. Such term includes automatic number iden- 24 tification services; and EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD03106-01-5 
 S. 4537 2 1 (d) "call-blocking service" means any service that (i) uses reasonable 2 analytics designed to identify unwanted calls; and (ii) blocks calls 3 identified by such analytics. 4 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, where a 5 contract that includes the procurement of a voice service is to be 6 awarded by a state agency, public authority or municipality, pursuant to 7 a competitive bidding process or a request for proposal process, such 8 contract shall require that any voice service furnished to the state or 9 any of its political subdivisions shall include a call-blocking service. 10 3. A voice service provider that provides a call-blocking service 11 pursuant to this section shall not be subject to any civil or criminal 12 liability on the basis that such call-blocking service blocked a call 13 that was wanted or failed to block a call that was unwanted. 14 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed- 15 ing the date it shall have become a law.