FCC plans ID mandate that could block anonymous use of prepaid burner phones

The National Network to End Domestic Violence described extensive concerns with the list of potential information the FCC may require collecting. The proposal “asks whether providers should exclude or subject to heightened scrutiny virtual addresses, shared office locations, PO boxes, and mail-forwarding services, and whether providers should rely on customer-characteristic ‘red flags’ to identify potentially suspicious customers,” the group said. “While these questions arise in the context of fraud prevention, they also implicate practices that survivors routinely use to protect themselves from being monitored or harmed by abusive actors.”

The proposal “asks whether providers should collect copies of government-issued identification, verify information using public databases; consumer reporting agencies; financial institutions; and commercial records, and retain those records for four years after the customer relationship ends,” the group said.

People fleeing domestic abuse “may be living in a shelter, transitional housing, a hotel, a car, a friend’s spare room, or another location they cannot safely disclose,” the group’s filing said. “Many rely on address confidentiality programs (ACPs), governmental programs that provide survivors with a substitute legal address and mail-forwarding services precisely because disclosure of a residential address can expose them to renewed violence.”

“Horrible for everyone’s privacy”

Victims of abuse frequently relocate and need to establish new email accounts and phone numbers, the FCC was told. While the National Network to End Domestic Violence is focused on domestic violence survivors, the group pointed out that similar concerns about the FCC plan have been “raised by leading privacy and civil liberties organizations.”

Eric Null, director of the Privacy & Data Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, told 404 Media recently that “to address the scourge of illegal robocalls, the FCC has unfortunately proposed to force every wireless subscriber in the nation to sacrifice their privacy and give up significant personal details before receiving or renewing a wireless line. While some carriers already collect such details, there are specific circumstances where a person may need privacy and anonymity when seeking a cell phone, including if that person is a victim of domestic violence, or is a journalist or whistleblower.”