FCC Approves Proposal Requiring ID Verification for Phone Service Activation
By
Ken Macon
A snack-sized bagel for a snack-sized appetite.
Summary
The FCC has unanimously approved a proposal requiring telecom providers to verify customers' identities using government-issued ID, physical address, legal name, and existing phone numbers before activating service. While the stated goal is to combat robocalls, the proposal would effectively end anonymous phone service in the US by creating a mandatory identity-verification regime for nearly all voice providers. Privacy advocates have long opposed such measures.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe era of the anonymous phone number could be ending.
The result would be an identity-verification regime covering one of the last semi-anonymous communication tools available to ordinary Americans.
The FCC just proposed fixing your robocall problem by building the kind of phone-user registry that privacy advocates have spent decades trying to prevent.
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