16 Groups Warn FCC’s New ‘Robocall Plan’ Is Really About Dramatically Undermining Privacy

from the anonymity-matters dept

Back in May I noted how the Trump FCC had unveiled a brand new plan to “stop robocalls.”

I also noted how the plan doesn’t actually stop robocalls because a well-lobbied U.S. government (1) refuses to hold big companies accountable or collect fines, (2) constantly embraces weak rules that make telemarketers and debt collectors happy through endless loopholes, and (3) has an unhealthy fixation with undermining regulatory oversight at the behest of large companies.

Worse; buried in the Trump FCC plan are several initiatives that would harm U.S. privacy and help ICE and other government domestic surveillance efforts. The biggest being a plan to crack down on burner phones by forcing telecoms (the ones bone-grafted to our domestic surveillance operations) to dramatically scale up the information they collect from consumers.

More specifically, the Trump FCC is planning to expand the agency’s Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements by imposing a requirement to “at a minimum, obtain and retain the name, physical address, government issued identification number, and an alternate telephone number of any new and renewing customer.”

That’s unsurprisingly raised concerns among privacy advocates and civil rights groups well aware that greater surveillance will be abused by the Trump administration and beyond. It also ignores that there’s often very good reasons why abuse victims, whistleblowers, journalists, refugees, and others might be seeking an anonymous prepaid burner phone.

On the off chance they might be able to sway Brendan Carr’s thinking, sixteen privacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation have fired off a letter to the agency warning the FCC to avoid undermining public privacy:

“Beyond creating acute privacy risks for all subscribers, the proposal would endanger anonymous communications that have long protected whistleblowers, activists, journalists, and domestic violence survivors. A survivor of domestic violence fleeing an abuser should not have to create a record that leads back to their door in order to get a phone. Nor should a whistleblower or a survivor escaping a trafficking situation. Further, the FCC is responsible for protecting privacy of customer information through its telecom privacy provisions and laws like the Safe Connections Act. This proposal undercuts those protections.”

The additional requirements would also push anonymity out of reach for untold millions of unhoused
individuals, low-income Americans, older adults, foster youth, and others who need anonymity but may struggle to provide required identifiers. The groups note it also puts even greater private information in the hands of companies with some of the worst track records on privacy in America.

“In 2021, a T-Mobile breach exposed the Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers of approximately 77 million people and, in 2024, an AT&T breach exposed the call and text records of nearly all its wireless customers (roughly 110 million subscribers).

Mandating that thousands of originating providers, including small carriers with limited resources to protect the privacy and security of such an extensive amount of information, collect and retain government IDs for the life of the customer relationship plus four years creates significant new exposure.”

Advertisement

Of course the Trump administration doesn’t really care about “fixing robocalls.” If it did, it would hold the biggest scam callers (large legitimate companies and debt collectors) accountable, actually follow through on penalties, stop embracing mindless deregulation, and take aim at the biggest domestic telecoms that have historically dragged their feet on enforcement (and adopting anti-spoofing authentication technology) because they’ve profited from the scams and harassment of their own customers.

Brendan Carr isn’t the type of guy who cares about holding large U.S. companies accountable for anything. He’s more into broadly gutting corporate oversight at the behest of monopolies, dismantling the First Amendment, and expanding domestic surveillance — especially of vulnerable populations being targeted and brutalized by ICE.

Filed Under: anonymity, authentication, domestic abuse, fcc, robocalls, shaken/stir, surveillance, telecom