The Do Not Call (DNC) Registry in Singapore

Cold calls, marketing texts and promotional faxes to your mobile can be more than a nuisance. Singapore's Do Not Call Registry lets you tell organisations to stop, and it puts a legal duty on them to check before they contact you. This guide explains how the registry works, what it covers, and what to do if the messages keep coming.

This is general legal information, not legal advice. Consult a qualified advocate and solicitor about your situation.

Information last verified on 23 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Singapore law and is not legal advice in an individual case.

What the DNC Registry is

The DNC Registry is part of the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (the PDPA). Part 9 of the Act, sections 36 to 48, sets up the registry and the duties that go with it. Note that the current in-force text of the Act uses Arabic numbering, so you are looking for Part 9, even though older guidance sometimes refers to it as Part IX.

The idea is simple. You register your Singapore telephone number, and organisations that want to send you marketing must first check whether your number is on the register. If it is, they generally must not send you that marketing message.

The three registers

There is not one single list but three, and you can join any combination of them:

The No Voice Call Register blocks marketing phone calls. The No Text Message Register blocks marketing SMS and similar text messages. The No Fax Message Register blocks marketing faxes.

Registering on one register does not automatically register you on the others. If you want to stop marketing calls, texts and faxes, you add your number to all three. Registration is free through the DNC Registry, and you can register more than one number.

What organisations must do before marketing you

An organisation that wants to send a marketing message (the Act calls it a specified message) to a Singapore number must have valid confirmation that the number is not on the relevant register before it sends. The duty to check is in the Act, and a confirmation stays valid for up to 30 days, so an organisation cannot check once and rely on that result forever.

In practice many organisations do not query the register themselves each time. They use a paid checking service, sometimes called a checker, to screen their marketing lists against the registers. Organisations must also identify themselves in the message and must not conceal the calling line identity, so you can tell who is contacting you.

Messaging apps, texts and faxes

The DNC rules are not limited to old-fashioned phone calls. The PDPC's own guidance confirms that marketing messages sent through apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram to a Singapore telephone number are covered, because those apps use your phone number as your identifier. If you are on the No Text Message Register and you receive an unwanted marketing message through WhatsApp, that can be a breach.

What is not covered: B2B and other exemptions

Not every message is a specified message. The clearest carve-out is business-to-business marketing. A message sent to an organisation, rather than to an individual acting in a personal or domestic capacity, for the receiving organisation's own business purposes, is exempt under the Act's Eighth Schedule. So a supplier contacting a company about a business product is treated differently from a marketer contacting you personally.

The Eighth Schedule also excludes some other messages from the DNC rules, such as messages you have an ongoing relationship about, messages completing a transaction you asked for, and pure market research or survey messages. These are narrower than they sound, so an organisation should not assume a marketing message qualifies just because it also mentions a past purchase.

If marketing continues after you register

If you keep getting marketing calls or texts after your number has been on the register for a reasonable time, you can complain to the PDPC. The PDPC enforces the DNC provisions and can take action against an organisation that fails to check the register or that ignores it. For the general complaint route, including approaching the organisation first, see the guide on how to complain to the PDPC.

For the wider picture of how the PDPA is structured, including the data protection obligations and breach notification, see the data protection and the PDPA section page.