Prepaid Mobile Laws Would Restrict Freedom, Impose Regulations and Fail to Stop Criminals - IPI
Special to TAG-IT News Agency
DALLAS, TX - New legislation will not only fail to meet its supposed intended purpose of curbing criminal behavior, but it will also increase government costs on the 58 million Americans who use prepaid cell phones, erode those users privacy and impose severe regulations, according to a new publication released on Monday by the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI).
Bartlett D. Cleland, director of the IPI Center for Technology Freedom and author of the publication, "Hanging Up On Liberty: Prepaid Mobile Laws Restrict Freedom, Impose Onerous Regulations and Fail to Stop Criminal Behavior," says the thinking behind "The Pre-paid Mobile Device Identification Act," sponsored by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-TX, erroneously assumes that a significant motivation for purchasing prepaid mobile devices is to commit criminal acts.
Under the proposed law, purchasers of a prepaid wireless device would be forced to provide their name, address, date of birth, photo, and various tax documents (i.e. 1099, W-2) to an authorized merchant, who must then transmit that information to a service provider to be retained in a sprawling database for 18 months.
"Prepaid mobile was designed as another attractive financial option for consumers," said Cleland. "But as a handful of criminals also glommed on, law enforcement took the view that this technology was something of an accomplice and sadly have decided to restrict us all rather than pursuing and prosecuting the wrong doers."
"Liberty is curtailed for all, with little help for law enforcement," said Cleland.
Prepaid wireless companies already routinely assist law enforcement in their efforts. In addition, a variety of more appropriate state efforts are underway to address these challenges. The proposed legislation is merely a power grab by the federal government to limit liberty, increase prices and ratchet up regulations while providing little help for law enforcement.
"The correct thinking is to have government step back when private parties are heading toward a desired solution, letting the market operate effectively and efficiently to solve perceived problems," said Cleland.
"Government schemes to collect names, addresses or tax information will ultimately fail, and criminals will either find a means to defeat those techniques or move on to use other means of communications," said Cleland.
The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is an independent, nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas, Texas.
