bgraham
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY Reviews:
 ·Verizon VoiceWing
 ·Verizon FiOS
·VOIPo
| Whats all this terrorist crap? Anyone can walk into Radioshack and get a prepaid phone with no way of tracing it. I did it when I got mad at Verizon for dumping newsgroups. I got rid of my $35 a month Verizon cell phone, paid $10 for a prepaid cell phone and put $20 in the account. Paid cash, no ID needed and I could have given them any fake address if I wanted to. You can turn off the phone GPS in the options menu too.
The $25 a month I save pays for a newsgroups account and I am still $15 a month better off. |
| The thing is, having to provide some sort of identifying information isn't going to stop terrorists (a catch-all word meant to inspire fear these days) from getting a phone. If someone wants a phone that can't be traced, they can do any of the following things:
1. Bring in a SIM from overseas and roam on a U.S. carrier. Expensive but pretty much untraceable.
2. Use forged intentity information, just as they'd use when getting other goods and services.
3. Pay off a store employee somewhere to enter inaccurate identity information when the phone is purchased.
4. Pay a crackhead to use their ID to get the phone for them. The crackhead won't ask any questions.
5. Steal a phone from someone for short-term use.
6. Pay a crackhead to steal the phone. That way, if he gets caught, he won't be linked back to the terrorist.
7.Get a wi-fi phone and use Skype over open hotspots.
The problem with using more and more draconian intrusions into people's private lives is that these measures don't stop those who want to circumvent them. The only people who end up being harmed are law-abiding citizens. |
