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There are upwards of 150 million calls made every day by a legion of roughly 140,000 U.S. telemarketing operations. Unfortunately, about 20 percent of those calls are illegal, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

A new app is going after those businesses that skirt the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) that limits unsolicited calling on behalf of consumers.

PrivacyStar, which already accounted for roughly 21 percent of all telemarketing complaints submitted to the FTC (News - Alert) in 2014, has just announced the release of a new Android app to make it even easier for consumers to screen and file complaints against firms that ignore the TCPA when planning their calling campaigns.

The PrivacyStar call management app identifies telemarketing calls and helps consumers who have installed the app to file complaints directly to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which oversees enforcement of the TCPA.

The app gives consumers substantial control over call screening. It offers enhanced call logging that puts all calls and texts on a single screen where consumers can easily identify any unknown number and why they called. It offers color-coded threat levels to identify safe, suspect and known offenders. It also has a real-time, pop-up display of incoming caller details regarding who is calling and why.

Then there is the complaint filing feature, which is a unique selling point for the company that makes it easy for frustrated consumers to report illegal telemarketing practices. The feature reports abusive call behavior directly to the FTC from within the app, and it connects users with consumer advocates to fight back when call offenses occur.

Most calling campaigns are run legally and should not worry about solutions such as PrivacyStar. But PrivacyStar and apps of its ilk should also be a warning to stay legal by paying attention to the TCPA and applicable laws.

In the digital age, it is much easier to capture behavior that falls afoul of applicable laws. Reporting also is much easier thanks to digital communication. So while businesses might have gotten away with abusive calling tactics in the past, those days are numbered. At least if PrivacyStar has anything to do with it. And the numbers of reported complaints coming from the app indicates that it is successful in its purpose of reporting TCPA violations.