The Federal Communications Commission
wants to require telecommunications providers
to collect vast amounts of personal information from every person who wants a phone number in the name of combatting scam and spam calls. This plan will fail to combat the deluge of unwanted calls people in the United States receive every day while giving untrustworthy companies a gold mine of information that would harm everyday consumer’s privacy, access to communications, and ability to speak freely.
The requirement to provide ID and an address would
completely cut off the ability to have an anonymous phone line
, which would mean many people in the most precarious situations imaginable: domestic violence and human trafficking survivors, unhoused people, and children without stable homes, would not be able to gain access to a crucial lifeline. EFF, along with ACLU, has
submitted comments advising the FCC to abandon this proposal entirely
.
This Rule Will Not Decrease Spam Calls
Requiring phone providers to collect consumers’ information will not appreciably decrease or eliminate unwanted calls. The FCC knows this because it
confesses in its own rulemaking
that “the most effective way to prevent unwanted calls from reaching American consumers is by ensuring they never enter the network.” Further, the Federal Trade Commission
found that
“a significant proportion, if not the majority, of unwanted robocalls originate from overseas.” Collecting the personal information of everyone who wants to make a phone call will not put a dent in fraudulent calls.
What will address unwanted calls is the FCC’s
STIR/SHAKEN technical standards
, which already exist. While STIR/SHAKEN is not perfect, it is actually a technical solution to the problem of spam calls. And where
less than 50% of American telecommunication providers have fully implemented the protocol
, the FCC should put its energy toward 100% compliance to reduce the scale of unwanted calls, instead of collecting con
