FCC Wants to Kill Burner Phones by Forcing Telecoms to Get All Customers' IDs

https://www.404media.co/fcc-wants-to-kill-burner-phones-by-forcing-telecoms-to-get-all-customers-ids/

87•berlianta•1h ago

Comments

dkdbejwi383•1h ago

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.

mc32•1h ago

Don’t eSIMs solve this problem for tourists?

nickphx•58m ago

Only if you do not require voice service.

naturalmovement•27m ago

Apple — and now Google — have "solved" this problem for the government by removing physical SIM slots in US iPhones.

TylerE•22m ago

Thus eSIM

vfclists•4m ago

Doesn't an eSIM link the SIM to the phone's IMEI which is usually logged somewhere?

NoMoreNicksLeft•33m ago

What problem were they hoping to solve with that legislation?

logicchains•25m ago

The problem of citizens having anonymous internet connectivity.

rusk•20m ago

The free anonymous internet was only ever a ruse to get people to use it so the CIA could spy on them. DARPA, folks, created a “free as in beer” global surveillance network and we all bought it.

Not that we didn’t get anything in return but the idea that the worlds foremost military industrial complex just gave this to the world because they loved us is laughable.

naturalmovement•28m ago

> like most other places

Much of EU requires ID for some time now. France is a bit strange, requires registration after 23 days or something. Germany, Italy, Spain it's basically impossible.

The US is rather unique in that it does not require registration.

joxdosba•24m ago

Huh? At least in Germany, Spain and France all of the smaller shops fill in fake info without even asking.

EU countries have had these requirements for years and years and never moved to actually enforce them.

naturalmovement•23m ago

I wasn't taking blatant fraud into account. I'm sure that's possible everywhere. I'd bet you can buy cigarettes without the tax stamps in the same shop too.

Last I traveled the shop required a passport or uploading one to get an eSIM ahead of time.

joxdosba•22m ago

Sure, but if you’re a tourist in e.g. Barcelona trying to get a prepaid SIM, odds are the shopkeeper will not ask you for your ID despite being required to.

> Last I traveled the shop required a passport or uploading one to get an eSIM ahead of time.

Sounds like you went to a carrier boutique and not one of the million independent shops.

lifestyleguru•18m ago

Not a good example. In Spain they notoriously demand id/passport and make photo or copy of it, they do it "for the police".

dgellow•24m ago

I mean. It’s the same, you just have to show your passport and fill a form. It takes 1minute to get it done, you can do it on your way to the taxi if you want. Though e-sim are more practical now

mothballed•21m ago

I wonder what exactly are they hoping to achieve then? Anything that can be filled out in 1 minute in a taxi can be spoofed with an extra 30 seconds on the dark net buying dark IDs. So this does less than zero for crime, actually encourages more of it, while doing what exactly? It's madness.

nemomarx•18m ago

Who says anything about crime? the goal is just so they can associate phone numbers with id cards in some fashion right?

If they want to know what tourists are posting about their country that's good enough.

voakbasda•11m ago

Like so many laws, nothing to do with stopping crime, but an obvious push to strip the populace of its rights.

garyfirestorm•1h ago

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

hstaab•59m ago

T-Mobile prepaid accounts for example

olyjohn•31m ago

You can just walk in there with cash and walk out with a fully activated SIM without them asking for ID?

dgellow•20m ago

Correct

tracedddd•51m ago

not at all, it’s easy to buy cash only tracphone, mint, boost, etc. and there are plenty of explicit anonymous providers such as phreeli.

That said, I don’t think its a problem whatsoever and we shouldn’t have laws restricting it.

dgellow•20m ago

In the US you can buy a SIM card and activate without providing any information at the airport. At least in NYC. I was really surprised the first time

kgwxd•5m ago

josefritzishere•42m ago

Seems like classic regulatory overreach.

sonorous_sub•41m ago

Burner phones are a pandemic vector. They enable the spread of disease, good riddance.

Terr_•36m ago

I want to believe this is just a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference [0]... but I fear that might be too-optimistic.

[0] The profession of Telephone Sanitiser on planet Golgafrincham.

aaomidi•31m ago

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•29m ago

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•28m ago

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.

rockskon•22m ago

Well - it's not exactly a surprise that all these non-American countries engage in un-American practices.

It's much more concerning when said practices are undertaken by the U.S.

Just because other countries do something isn't a justification to bring the practice into the U.S. despite that being a justification used with increasing prevalence these days.

cwillu•5m ago

American exceptionalism was always a lie; name an “un-American” practice, and I'll show you a piece of American foreign policy.

kgwxd•8m ago

> many messaging apps require a phone number

But not all, so what's the actual point?

throwaway27448•28m ago

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•25m ago

They’ll get around to guns eventually …

greenavocado•21m ago

They're already trying to regulate the shape of guns to effectively outlaw everything but the bullet.

rusk•18m ago

Hopefully they tax th bejeesus out of bullets too. Who was the comedian “imma gona pop a cap in yo ass, but first imma set up a layaway”

fridder•9m ago

Chris Rock. And honestly probably the easiest way for gun control

bsimpson•18m ago

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.

user3939382•6m ago

Open to the possibility that I’m just cynical but my faith is very low that these comment processes are anything more than a regulatory requirement for the illusion of due diligence which legitimizes the actual corporate lobbying and security state actually making the policy.

giantg2•17m ago

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

voakbasda•14m ago

And with that suggestion, a clause is being added to close that loophole….

iammrpayments•14m ago

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•10m ago

I wish they would kill spam calling and texting instead.

mrsssnake•10m ago

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•8m ago

US of A’s Chinafication letsgooooooo

bebeidjdkrjrjr•7m ago

It makes sense. If you are member of state supported terroeist group (antiva, mosab, alwuaide) just ask your sponsors for sims directly. Non state groups should not have access!

2OEH8eoCRo0•5m ago

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

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