Spain Disconnecting Pre-Paid Phones in November Unless Users Identify Themse...

Spain Disconnecting Pre-Paid Phones in November Unless Users Identify Themselves [Rights]

via Gizmodo by Jesus Diaz on 3/4/09

Scratch another one against privacy in the name of "public safety" and "protection": Following European Union directives, Spain will disconnect all pre-paid phone lines that aren't registered with the owner's personal information. Who wins here?

The move comes as part of a campaign that orders people to "Identify yourself!", just like when Franco was a dictator. They want pre-paid phones to be associated with the user's personal information, including name, address, and national ID numbers (the equivalent to the Social Security number in the US). The new law also requires operators to register every single call made and hold the information for a year.

The reasoning of the European Union and the retarded Spanish government is that, by doing this, they can avoid bomb attacks like the ones that happened in Madrid's train stations in March 11, 2004, where terrorist triggered bombs using cellphones, killing 191 people and wounding 1,800. As if the terrorists couldn't forge identification data.

But does this make sense? Yes, bombs can be triggered with cellphones, but what difference does this make? They can be triggered by suicide bombers too, clocks, radio control, and by any other method you can think about. The fact is that there were bombs in Spain—and everywhere else—being triggered by a variety of methods before cellphones arrived. Cellphones are just one of them.

Does these irrational fears justify a campaign to control the communication of private citizens, specially when the bad guys can avoid the controls and use alternative methods to wreak havoc in society?

Paraphrasing Churchill: Do you want to die free and standing up, or live under fear and control, like in a fascist state? [El Mundo]