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Congress Wants Prepaid Phone Buyers to Provide ID

Mar 28, 2016, 12:01 PM by Eric M. Zeman

A new bill introduced to Congress would require everyone who buys a prepaid phone or SIM card to provide identification, including name, address, and date of birth. The "Closing the Pre-Paid Mobile Device Security Gap Act of 2016", or H.R. 4486, aims to reduce the use of "burner" or anonymous phones sometimes used by criminals and terrorists. As written, consumers will have to identify themselves at the point of purchase. Moreover, retailers will have to verify ID credentials before permitting a sale, as well as maintain a record of the sale, including the sale date, phone maker and model, service provider, phone number, IMEI, serial number, and other phone details. The bill was introduced by California Representative Jackie Speier. The idea is to reduce ways for people to use untraceable cell phones in the pursuit of illegal activities.

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Comments

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This forum is closed.

kingstu

Mar 28, 2016, 4:49 PM

Bad Idea and will create more problems

The people with the phone number directories will have so much information that they don't need to have. All the celebrities will get their private information sold or leaked. Criminals will just have someone else buy the burner phone or steal one or get the records themselves. If the poor and homeless don't have proper id they will have one more problem preventing them from getting out of that situation.

aeternavi

I was all for this legislature, but you have provided perfect examples of why it would be bad that I didn't initially think of.

msteven3

Also, this won't do a thing to stop terrorism. International terrorists will just bring in a SIM from overseas and roam on a U.S. network.

Also, what if I buy a phone that is then registered to me and then sell it on eBay, and then the buyer uses ...
(continues)

Rou-D

No one thinks before passing these kinds of laws

thebriang

Mar 29, 2016, 12:53 PM

Stupid idea, that wont do what they think...

So I'm betting it will pass. Congress is even more techtarded than the general public, and there Have been multiple cases lately of people driving across the country buying more phones than stores own policies allow them to sell, with a phony sounding story for why they have 2000 tracfones.

And Congress already did this with prepaid credit cards, because so many international terrorists finance their American jihad with Russel Simmons prepaid cards.

Funny how Mohammed Atta got an international wire transfer for $100,000 from the head of the pakistani ISI, when you would have thought he would just fed-ex'ed a big box of prepaid credit cards. Wonder how he physically received the cash from that wire? Oh... Shh.

So yeah, I'm betting i...
(continues)

Rou-D

This^

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