FCC wants to kill burner phones by forcing telecoms to get all customers' IDs

dkdbejwi383

This is how it works in Australia, which means it's a pain for tourists as you need to provide a passport for ID and get it activated, as opposed to just grabbing one at an airport kiosk and being ready to go on your way to the taxi or train like most other places.

garyfirestorm

Isn’t this already a requirement? Can you really buy a burner phone/sim without providing identifying information?

josefritzishere

Seems like classic regulatory overreach.

aaomidi

This is the pathway Iran is using to provide tiered internet btw. Just putting it out there on how quickly this tech turned against the population.

standardUser

The Trump administration has been working overtime trying to build databases of people in this country. Leaving no stone unturned, legal or otherwise. I vaguely remember a time when American conservatives were against precisely this, often as a first principle. Maybe that's just an idealized memory on my part.

rirze

Fundamentally un-American. That being said, many countries across the world already do this to eliminate burner phones. And many messaging apps require a phone number anyways so this basically locks down anonymous messaging through a phone.

throwaway27448

We're already forced into the credit bureaus. Into traffic cameras. Into using credit cards and banks. The idea the state would let us actually say things online anonymously (or to each other) is completely unrealistic: we must be tagged and tracked through our lifecycle.

rusk

They’ll get around to guns eventually …

bsimpson

Here's the link to submit a comment to the FCC: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express Ran a quick search and found a whole bunch of news articles, but nobody includes info that makes it easy to route your comment. Feels like the beginning of Hitchhiker's Guide: > It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.

giantg2

Maybe a way around this is for intermediary companies to own the phone that happens to have service and then lease the phone.

iammrpayments

Had to buy one of these SMS activation services from a guy in Nigeria using a memecoin because claude decided to ban my account because they didn’t like my credit card brand and Claude requires sms activation for new accounts. Guess these guys are going to make more money in the near future.

giancarlostoro

I wish they would kill spam calling and texting instead.

mrsssnake

Regardless of this, I see phone network as a legacy thing that in perfect world should already be replaced with lightweight upgradeable calling protocol over IPv6.

StepBroBD

US of A’s Chinafication letsgooooooo

2OEH8eoCRo0

Good. Telecoms should have a duty to know who uses their networks.

9cb14c1ec0

I expect the FCC to adopt this rule, and I also expect it to be challenged in court, on the basis that there are many other approaches to fighting spam calls that the FCC has not tried, but are much less intrusive.

reaperducer

Good luck with this. You can't make the desk clerk in a ghetto cell phone store care. I say this speaking as someone who has a T-Mobile account under the name George Washington with a Valley Forge, Pennsylvania address.

vfclists

It was only a matter of time. The real issue is whether government's should have the right to metadata or the content of remote communications. Government's don't claim the right to monitor face to face communications so why should they have the right to do so for remote communications.

brushfoot

No more anonymous driving, thanks to Flock. Soon, no more anonymous calls, thanks to the FCC. Your bank already knows everything about you; why not your operating system, too? Soon your ISP will only let you online if your OS sends them the "right" information: your government ID. We should also abolish cash while we're at it. The government needs to know every purchase you've ever made, no exceptions. Of course, then we should tear down used bookstores. They're the biggest risk of all. Anyone can walk in and pick up pieces of paper that teach them dangerous ideas. Other religions. Philosophies. Poetry. How to make things. What we really need is a nation of drones walking to and fro in the image of our rulers, thinking their thoughts, practicing their religions, and parroting their words. It's the only way to be truly safe.

Keyb0ardWarri0r

I'm always surprised how bad ideas spread faster than good ideas among our rulers. Here is a map of countries where an ID is required (or not) https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-regist...