Feds launch another assault on privacy: Id required for prepaid phones

A bipartisan pair of Senate leaders have introduced a first-of-its-kind bill aimed at stopping terrorist suspects such as the would-be Times Square bomber from hiding their identities by using prepaid cellphones to plot their attacks.

The legislation sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) would require buyers to present identification when purchasing a prepaid cellphone and require phone companies to keep the information on file, as they do with users of landline phones and subscription-based cellphones. The proposal would require the carriers to retain the data for 18 months after the phone's deactivation.

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All in the name of "fighting terrorism" of course. It seems whenever the feds want to attack even more of our rights, its either because of "the terrorists!" or to "save the children"


Anonymous communication is a MUST, not a luxury.


[edit on 26-5-2010 by brainwrek]

reply to post by brainwrek


I guess we have to get used to a totalitarian society for at least the next couple of years.

Hope N Change, alright.

Hoping it will change sooner than a couple more years!

Since the feds want info on everyone, I think its only fair we demand personal info on those in government. Why not post each and every congressman's personal cell phone number on a site for everyone to access at any time and for any reason.

Prepaid cell phones are more commonly used in crimes than contract ones, this law makes sense because of that fact.

Furthermore, I've always wondered why Americans have problems showing their Identification? It's just showing that you are who you say you are, don't you have to do it every time you check something out of a library, or whenever pulled over by a police officer? This is not like some random DNA test station. Just flash a card, give em a smile, and be on your way. I can think of much more invasive identification checks myself.

There have got to be much better things to worry about than showing ID, get over it.

Another right to privacy gone.

Are there any empirical figures on crime or presumed 'terrorism' that can be attributed to the necessity for pre-paid cards?

Just because a few clowns make use of pre-paid cards and the rest of the masses must be punished for it?

A pre-paid card is convenient and at most times, information revealed had only been used by Corporations to sell or to rip off consumers, as well as rogue corrupted humans within such authoritarian organisations to benefit from such information.

Another slieght of hand deal. Whomever that proposed those laws oughtta have their asses kicked and booted out of civilised societies. They are taking the easy way out to deal with crime and terrorism - by locking down everyone. Might as well throw everyone in prison, then for sure, there will be NO terrrosim and crime.

reply to post by SeekerofTruth101


Yea and it was just "a few clowns" that ruined things like personal checks, credit cards, firearms, automobiles, commercial aircraft, bank accounts and everything else you need an ID for to help prevent crime.

These things happen, why is this one so bloody important? What are you using these phones for that you would not want them to be able to trace it back to you anyways?

Edit: Alright seriously how does showing your ID equate to a society where you might as well be in prison? That is just lunacy. Try going to a country with actual real oppression and see how long you armchair patriot Americans and your spoiled sense of entitlement can last against some secret police.

[edit on 28-5-2010 by ProjectJimmy]

reply to post by ProjectJimmy


Why is it the government's business who I speak to on the phone? Until a crime is committed, it is not their business. I think this move will actually lead to MORE crime, because people will now have to steal someone else's identity to get a phone under a name other than their own.

reply to post by ProjectJimmy

Edit: Alright seriously how does showing your ID equate to a society where you might as well be in prison? That is just lunacy. Try going to a country with actual real oppression and see how long you armchair patriot Americans and your spoiled sense of entitlement can last against some secret police.

Oh yeah, that's some real sound reasoning. Point to even worse tyranny to show how incremental tyranny is really quite pleasant. Good one Mary Poppins!

reply to post by ProjectJimmy


I am sure you would prefer to make things easy for the SS and Gestapo. Why not? Show ID. Place RFID chips. Place electronic shackles on the legs on humans. Today, they claim to target criminals and terrorists.

Tomorrow, if you so much as write a letter of complain to your Mayor on the poor performance of the traffic cop, you too CAN be labelled a terrorist - simply because you broke the peace enjoyed by others who remained silent and the Mayor's siesta to look into your complain.

Ridiculous as this post may sound, go to China in one of the corrupted provinces and you will know what I mean.

Everything has a beginning, and today such proposals are the beginnings of benign to malevolent control of mankind. WAKE UP!!!!

Originally posted by JohnnyTHSeed
reply to post by ProjectJimmy

 

Why is it the government's business who I speak to on the phone? Until a crime is committed, it is not their business. I think this move will actually lead to MORE crime, because people will now have to steal someone else's identity to get a phone under a name other than their own.

It's not at all the government's business whom you speak to on the phone so long as you are not breaking laws. And if you do not break laws with your phone, they will not care.

Seriously the government of gigantic nations like the United States has far far better things to do with their time than keep track of everyone, it's an investigative tool, not a means for Big Brother to watch over you. The system for such things is passive not active.

Hell every time I buy a pack of cigarettes I have to show my ID, does that mean that my government is keeping track of how much I smoke? Not at all, and we have socialized healthcare!

Seriously, it is a phone, and you have to show your ID. People in Uzbekistan have to show a lot more than that to leave their home towns!

You live in America, a free country, seriously you Freedom Index is near the top. I still don't see how having to show and ID to buy a prepaid phone somehow now means you are living in North Korea.

reply to post by ProjectJimmy


'Show your ID?'. Are you kidding and ignorant or attempting to hide agendas here?

Your ID WILL BE RECORDED AND TAGGED TO THAT number you bought forever. It's not just a flash of ID and you get your card.

yay... great no more phones can ever be use'd by bad people!

um...what if they buy the in another country?
could post them to usa!
and WHY are they JUST doing it NOW?
and they can get some smuck to buy them
or just steal them when they mug some one.

Bloody ideots

if they took ALL your freedom in one go,
you would fight them all the way.
but take them one by one. and people just grumble a lot.
and when they are ALL GONE!
you have NOTHING left to fight with.........."oops!".


[edit on 28-5-2010 by buddha]

reply to post by ProjectJimmy

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

~The Fourth Amendment; The Bill of Rights, The Constitution for the United States of America~

Preemptive warrants are not the American way, or at least weren't once upon a time, before American's started electing Anglophiles who were ever so impressed with what the "Fourth Estate" had to say about America's pesky little Constitution.

Originally posted by ProjectJimmy
reply to post by SeekerofTruth101

 

Yea and it was just "a few clowns" that ruined things like personal checks, credit cards, firearms, automobiles, commercial aircraft, bank accounts and everything else you need an ID for to help prevent crime.

These things happen, why is this one so bloody important? What are you using these phones for that you would not want them to be able to trace it back to you anyways?

Edit: Alright seriously how does showing your ID equate to a society where you might as well be in prison? That is just lunacy. Try going to a country with actual real oppression and see how long you armchair patriot Americans and your spoiled sense of entitlement can last against some secret police.

[edit on 28-5-2010 by ProjectJimmy]

In some cases, husbands use a phone like this to take the first step away from a mindless wife. Wait till he gets a CB. Then you can listen in.

It is not so much as revealing personal information. As a member of society, it is my responsiblity to assist in any way I can.

But the problem is that information is power.

Just because someone wears a badge of authority does not mean he/she is an angel. They are only another flawed human, capable of the noblest deed and the villest ones as well. Who is to say they will not use our personal information against us, to blackmail or to serve their ends?

Think twice each time such laws are proposed that seek to shackle you further. The only thing the authority needs to know is one's social security number and address. Anything else, when the need arises, they will have to either get one to cooperate or find it.

As for criminals or terrorists, IDs are a joke. They can be bought a couple of dollars anywhere. Thus such laws are not helping to stop crime or terrorism. They are only meant to curtail your freedom and turn you into brandish slaves, to serve whomever is in power, be it the president or the local bully.

So the terrorists are attacking our right to privacy, then?

I guess they really do hate us because of our freedoms.

Clever move, Osama Bin CIA-din. You really ARE changing our way of life.

Originally posted by ProjectJimmy

There have got to be much better things to worry about than showing ID, get over it.

"Get over it"? Spoken like a true crawling worm. This "requirement" is the very essence of slavery, genius. Your dismissal of it is either rank stupidity, disgusting cowardice, or treason. Millions of people are enraged by it, and your arrogant sneer isn't worth spit in the wind. Generations of Americans have DIED to prevent such an outrageous "requirement" in this country. It's called FREEDOM.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!"
- Samuel Adams

reply to post by brainwrek


In surveilence Britian, we've had this purchase ID intrusion for a few years now.

Regardless of their personal views, the people (individual workers) who sell these phones take the rules very seriously. They have little choice if they want to keep their jobs; their managers/controllers may view the anti-crime, anti-terrorism CCTV footage from inside the shop and note any deviancy on the part of the worker.

Buying a pre-pay sim is no protection against state intrusion into the lives of private individuals. Once the sim is inserted into the phone, the data connecting the sim and the phone chip that is registered to the original buyer, is cross referenced. Under anti-terrorism legislation, police have access to all telecommunications network data.

For both State and commerce, the requirement to provide ID to make purchases is to 'complete' customer profiling initiatives is the chosen method to root out all those subversives who insist on using cash. Those who make their purchases with payment cards have had their personal data, spending habits, movements, tracked and cross referenced.

reply to post by teapot


When do you need to register a pre-pay mobbie in the UK? outside of Orange (even then they Orange do not ask for proof of ID)

As for the connection.. all phones can be traced and triangleated whether they are registered or not.. it makes little difference to the police knowing who the owner is.

a first-of-its-kind bill aimed at stopping terrorist suspects
such as the would-be Times Square bomber

OK STOP
hold the presses

I distinctly remember the news article stating
that they tracked him leaving the country by
his cell phone.

so how could they track him if they didn't know who he was
and was using a disposable phone ???

and this article uses this suspect as it's poster
boy for this bill.

This is one of 2 things:

bad reporting and a bad bill, or
a lie and a bad bill


[edit on 28-5-2010 by boondock-saint]