FC: AT&T offers prepaid (anonymous?) Internet service

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Any reason to think AT&T would *not* be recording caller ID information 
from their prepaid-dialup users? Even in the absence of possible government 
pressure, it might be useful as an anti-fraud move. I don't know enough 
about the phone system to know whether AT&T would have access to ANI (which 
would give them your number even if you block caller ID). There's also the 
secondary issue of a prepaid ISP possibly recording URLs you visit and the 
identities of your email correspondents and preserving those logs in case 
the FBI or a subpoena-happy divorce lawyer comes visiting... Like other 
solutions for anonymity, there are many ways your identity can leak. See 
AT&T's site at: http://www.consumer.att.com/prepaidcard/prepaidinternet/ 
--Declan]

---

Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2003 14:19:28 -0700
Subject: Re: FC: Steve Schear on Internet providers getting serious about
        privacy
From: Bret Fausett <baf () fausett com>
To: <declan () well com>, <politech () politechbot com>

Declan,

Over the last six months I've started seeing pre-paid Internet access cards
by AT&T in airports. It's like a long-distance card, and you can buy them in
various denominations ($20, $50). I haven't tried it, so I can't vouch for
the degree of anonymity, but if you pay cash I wonder how they would trace
you.

    Bret




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