The FCC wants your ID before you get a phone number

varispeed

Domestic abusers rejoice. Just hide the victim's ID and they won't get a phone.

HNisCIS

Will this finally get Signal to stop demanding phone numbers to register accounts? Lots of services you'd rather have an anonymous account with (Google, Meta, Discord) are partially/fully mandating phone numbers as a spam mitigation strategy. Also this paves the way to internet connections/mobile internet requiring ID

bloomingeek

So, we all go back to land lines for privacy?

mattmaroon

Does anyone imagine the government doesn’t already know who owns every phone number? Also, couldn’t this system be optional, numbers that are ID-verified are somehow flagged so (assuming I choose) when one calls my phone knows to let it through and when an unverified number calls it doesn’t ring?

KevinMS

I can understand the motivation. I've had the same number since the 90's and never once got a spam call until I was in the hospital last year and since then I've been getting 2-3 a day every day. They've probably left at least a thousand voice mails for a great loan opportunity, all from different numbers and different loan amounts.

han1

As always, this will only affect those who either lack the knowledge or the resources to work around it. The innocent people always take the fall.

axus

Instead of forcing people and businesses to do all the work, how about the government does all the work and manages the data, and lets people opt-in to the system.

Lonestar1440

Privacy has to be one goal among many in a reasonable society. I am very glad to see this change, because phone-based Fraud is a plague on the Elderly and other vulnerable members of society. And an incredible annoyance even to a security conscious professional. The guard against intrusive and oppressive government is the Bill of Rights, not some easy ability to get a phone number anonymously.

balamatom

Already the case in most EU countries. I don't know if there is a commensurate robocaller problem. Come to think of it, when I get an EU SIM, it does start getting robocalls... as soon as I give the number to some Big Legitimate Business that is supposed to be observing GDPR and whatnot. Come to think of it, from what I know about this "mass surveillance" bullshit, robocallers being an inside job makes perfect sense.

big85

This is part of the same trend which requires ID to use social media, view adult content, or log into their own computer. The goal is to give government control of computers and communications.

smcleod

This is the way it works in Australia. I wasn't a huge fan of having to prove who I am and have my identity related to be able to txt and make phone calls or use mobile internet when I moved here.

delish

The difference between say a think tank and an advocacy organization like "reclaimthenet.org" is a think tank hopefully feels obligated to think about, and pitch, a solution to the identified problem (spam calls). Obviously reclaimthenet.org can post whatever they want on their site. I'm curious about requiring all phone calls except to emergency services to cost a tenth of a cent. Or some amount that permits desired robocalling (prescription drug reminders for those not on the 'net) and excises spam calls.

taylodl

Since numbers can be spoofed what problem is this actually solving? None?

vednig

every thing happening right now in privacy space including OS level ID verification, then websites requiring ID and now this is strangely alarming right to privacy and speech will soon be very limited in aspects only relating and possible offline and very soon there will be nothing one can do about that

declan_roberts

You know the FCC is going to do this and still be completely unable to stop spam calls. You're going to get all of the drawbacks and none of the benefits.

SoftTalker

Back when all phones were land lines were you able to get service connected without showing some identity? I honestly don't remember, and I had land lines at several addresses. I would assume they would want to ID the account owner in case they later had to collect, but they at least had the name you gave them, probably SSN or drivers license number too.

aspbee555

spam/phishing/malicious calls do not come from individuals. How about they start with preventing caller ID spoofing/requiring proper caller ID? the spam calls come from call farms that rotate numbers. they should be required to present a unified and verifiable caller ID Phone systems can put whatever they want in caller ID, there should be verifiable reverse lookup to a valid registered number along with fines for violators requiring an individuals ID to get a phone number is going to make the spam/phishing/malicious problem WORSE along with the enormous risks of that database being exposed/abused

jmclnx

>FCC Chairman Brendan Carr framed it around negligent carriers. Do people remember the "No Call List" ? All that did was provider real phone numbers to telemarketers after they moved their operations to another country to avoid the laws. How is this going to prevent robocalls ? All this is really saying to me is: Some politicians got a bribe (or in the US called campaign contributions) to provide a new list of valid phone numbers along with personal information for use for marketing or other purposes.

greyface-

FCC NPRM: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-seeks-comment-enhanced-know...

JohnTHaller

This will do absolutely nothing to stop robocalls, spam calls, and phishing calls. This is entirely about tying a specific phone number to a specific government IDed individual.