I hadn't heard about this.

I've long been annoyed at the cellular market. I've been upset for years that you have to have a credit check to get a good cell phone/plan price and that you get locked into plans for years. Cell phones are, or should be, more like a utility like your home phone or internet. You used to have to sign up for a year of internet, but that market changed. I've been hoping the cell market would too.

I think you should be able to get an anonymous number. I don't think I'd be as averse to "You have to give your phone company a name" than I would be to "You have to give the state your name", and I understand that anonymous cell phones are used by criminals. But so were pay phones.

That said, it seems that prepaid cellphones (or "burners") don't just make it "a little easier" for drug dealers. They make it a whole lot easier.

I tend to skew libertarian on privacy issues, and I'm on the side of people who are appalled by Congress' recent decision to grant telecoms amnesty for breaking the law. However, I'm not against the idea of wiretaps on principle--provided the traditional legal requirements are met (e.g. signed affidavit). Prepaid cellphones that require no user information make it nearly impossible to conduct telephone surveillance on actual criminals who employ them.

...treat like criminals, uselessly spin our wheels in fear, rather than face the fact that criminals will find a way to get around anything, and poor people really need this. Or families on vacation, or whoever.

For god's sake. There are billions of cell phones. Let's criminalize their use. All must wear the armband of security. ALL MUST MARCH FOR THE GLORIOUS HOMELAND! YOU! GET IN LINE! NO! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST WITH NO CHARGE! DROP THE PHONE OR WE'LL SHOOT!

Hey. I have one because I got tired of people stealing mine, and the cellphone company punishing me for it. And I like being that much off the grid. Just that one thing.

In cash.

I give this a big thumbs down. Not because it's specifically awful, but because I draw this line. Stop. Treating. Us. Like. We're. Criminals.

Are they just checking for ID to make sure the name on the account matches the name on some ID you've got, seems not unreasonable. If a phone is used for illegal purposes, tracking down the person who owns the phone can be really helpful.

But if it has to be a specific type of ID, it can become problematic. I have 2 prepaid phones, one in Canada and one in Ireland. If I'd been required to, show Irish or EU ID for that phone, I wouldn't have been able to get it, which would have been a problem. Very useful to have a local phone when travelling, and prepaid is the way to go for those, so I hope laws like these aren't going to restrict foreign phone ownership.

...But now, if I had another affair, I would use two untraceable pre-paid cellphones.

How the heck are adulterers going to get away with it if they must provide ID? Seriously, though, folks...

All our normal calls are traceable instantly. This has not always been true. Look at all those movies from a couple decades ago, when even the cops had an extremely hard time tracing any phone call...

You know, the scenes your kids do not understand, where the detectives try to trace, at phone company HQ, hoping the good guys can keep the bad guys on the line for fifteen minutes...

I predict that if we pass laws against throw-away cellphones, then the black market will make untraceable cellphones available. And regular folks will have regular reasons to buy them. It will be like every other sort-of-shady commodity, like marijuana, maybe.

Next time I have an affair, I will find my local untraceable cellphone pusher.

Goodness, I never would have guessed. I would have assumed that you would applaud any additional regulation and intrusion into people's lives. I, of course, oppose this sort of thing adamantly. The police state we live in has so many laws that many, many people don't agree with (as evinced by the number of people being arrested for victimless "crimes" and "crimes" which no one would report) that the police need to be constantly looking over your shoulder (literally) to catch these people in their "crimes" because nobody is going to report them.

Apparently, Massachusetts thinks that our current position of top police state with a greater percentage of our population behind bars than any other nation state on the planet is inadequate. They want to improve those numbers to ensure we have a hammer lock on the top police state honors on the off chance that the former members of the evil empire decide to resume their evil ways.

... how carefully is a clerk in a convenience store going to check a customer's ID? Carefully enough to detect a good counterfeit that a serious criminal would probably have?

If not, then this is just another law that further encroaches on our liberties without producing the advertised benefit.

I would further add that such a law could be used by the nefarious within government to harm the innocent.

I bought a pre-paid for my kid. Aside from all the other benefits, no one can track him down. Not the Representative Mark Foley-types, or any similar government official.

If that sounds paranoid - take a look again at how the two-tier law system works nowadays. Congress immunizes criminals who are part of their clique, but allows and encourages the law to be as harsh as possible with the rest of us.

Feh.

However, it makes sense to know what we must provide and what we can get away with not providing. Did you know that there is no law that requires that your medical provider use your Social Security number on your records. People would go a long way to assuring greater medical privacy if they just wouldn't voluteer what they don't have to volunteer.

On prepaid cell phones, even now the prepaid phone company will try to gain personal info from you when you activate the phone. The last one I used, TracFone, asked for my last phone number before they even asked for my name. I gave it to them and then they repeated my name. I just didn't think fast enough.

On principle, I never give anyone more information than they ask for. Moreover, it is not necessarily against the law to lie. You can get in trouble for lying to the federal government in some instances -- the FBI for instance -- and most members of law enforcement.

However, when some one gives you a form with intrusive information requested, you can always leave stuff blank or even write "not available." It is amazing how many times this is not noticed.

Why do I do this? 'Cause all that intrusive crap pisses me off and I don't want to be anyone's doormat.

And yes, I used to be a libertarian. Wanna make something of it?