Burner phones might be about to be banned in the US. A Congresswoman has proposed that everyone buying a phone in the country would have to register with personal ID, to stop criminal activities being planned with handsets that can be bought anonymously and then thrown away. Forcing shops to require customers to give over identification when buying cheap phones or pre-paid SIMs could be one of the most important ways that terrorists are able to communicate, according to California Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who proposed the bill.
Another assumption that the only people wanting anonymity are terrorists.
As another article points out:
That’s what makes this bill especially worrisome: it requires retailers to retain quite a bit of personal information – somewhere – for at least 18 months, while not mandating any sort of privacy or security requirements to make sure that that information is safe. As written, its requirements are vague, and it’s a privacy disaster waiting to happen.
Source 2: Gizmodo
