there goes the neighborhood!
sanitago
Florida
If you use a prepaid as a contact for a stripper for OTC, or for any other similar situations, sounds like the days of 'wine and roses' are about to come to a screeching halt.
Read the following:
Bill seeks ID to buy prepaid cell phone
Legislation aims to foil terrorists, other criminals
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 02:52 AM
By Beth Fouhy
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Alarmed by the use of hard-to-track prepaid cell phones by terror suspects, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Texas Sen. John Cornyn have introduced legislation requiring consumers to produce identification before buying such phones.
The bill has been praised by law enforcement and has bipartisan support, even as civil-liberties groups have raised privacy concerns and some terror experts say it won't deter bad behavior.
Schumer, a Democrat, and Cornyn, a Republican, are hoping to schedule hearings on the bill through the Judiciary Committee. Schumer has urged Attorney General Eric Holder to back the measure.
Prepaid phones can be a lifeline for people with limited income or poor credit, allowing them to purchase a device and a limited amount of calling time without committing to a costly contract. Phone companies sold $16 billion worth of prepaid cell phones last year, and the devices are hugely popular worldwide.
But because the phones can be purchased anonymously and are thrown away after use, they've long been a favored tool of drug dealers, gang members and even white-collar criminals looking to cover their tracks.
In recent years, such phones also have been linked to suspected terror activity, including that by Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American accused of plotting to bomb Times Square. Law-enforcement officials said Shahzad had used a prepaid cell phone to purchase a car in which to hide a bomb and to communicate with co-conspirators in Pakistan.
A handful of states and several countries require registration to purchase a prepaid cell phone.
"If law enforcement has a legitimate need to surveil, let them surveil," Schumer said, adding, "You can make sure privacy is protected."
That view isn't necessarily shared by civil-liberties groups and other advocates of digital privacy, who say they have both legal and practical objections.
"The Supreme Court has always upheld the principle that you have the right to speak anonymously - that the decision to identify yourself as a speaker is an aspect of speech itself," said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Tien also noted that many people, especially younger ones, regularly swap phones and SIM cards and buy used cell phones, further blurring the identity of the phones' users and owners.
"For a variety of reasons, this doesn't sound like a 'get off the ground' kind of idea," he said.
Schumer disagreed, saying the identity of prepaid cell purchasers would be kept private by phone companies in the same way that identities of regular cell and land-line phone owners are protected.
So far, no major phone company has objected to the legislation, and some say they fully embrace it.
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/con…
(all I can add is bloody fucking hell!!!)
Read the following:
Bill seeks ID to buy prepaid cell phone
Legislation aims to foil terrorists, other criminals
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 02:52 AM
By Beth Fouhy
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Alarmed by the use of hard-to-track prepaid cell phones by terror suspects, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Texas Sen. John Cornyn have introduced legislation requiring consumers to produce identification before buying such phones.
The bill has been praised by law enforcement and has bipartisan support, even as civil-liberties groups have raised privacy concerns and some terror experts say it won't deter bad behavior.
Schumer, a Democrat, and Cornyn, a Republican, are hoping to schedule hearings on the bill through the Judiciary Committee. Schumer has urged Attorney General Eric Holder to back the measure.
Prepaid phones can be a lifeline for people with limited income or poor credit, allowing them to purchase a device and a limited amount of calling time without committing to a costly contract. Phone companies sold $16 billion worth of prepaid cell phones last year, and the devices are hugely popular worldwide.
But because the phones can be purchased anonymously and are thrown away after use, they've long been a favored tool of drug dealers, gang members and even white-collar criminals looking to cover their tracks.
In recent years, such phones also have been linked to suspected terror activity, including that by Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American accused of plotting to bomb Times Square. Law-enforcement officials said Shahzad had used a prepaid cell phone to purchase a car in which to hide a bomb and to communicate with co-conspirators in Pakistan.
A handful of states and several countries require registration to purchase a prepaid cell phone.
"If law enforcement has a legitimate need to surveil, let them surveil," Schumer said, adding, "You can make sure privacy is protected."
That view isn't necessarily shared by civil-liberties groups and other advocates of digital privacy, who say they have both legal and practical objections.
"The Supreme Court has always upheld the principle that you have the right to speak anonymously - that the decision to identify yourself as a speaker is an aspect of speech itself," said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Tien also noted that many people, especially younger ones, regularly swap phones and SIM cards and buy used cell phones, further blurring the identity of the phones' users and owners.
"For a variety of reasons, this doesn't sound like a 'get off the ground' kind of idea," he said.
Schumer disagreed, saying the identity of prepaid cell purchasers would be kept private by phone companies in the same way that identities of regular cell and land-line phone owners are protected.
So far, no major phone company has objected to the legislation, and some say they fully embrace it.
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/con…
(all I can add is bloody fucking hell!!!)
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6 comments
Anyway, I don't see this stopping bad guys from using harder-to-trace communications devices. They'll just steal more phones, rather than buy them.