> I'd be very surprised to learn that I could purchase a burner phone, give you the phone number, and have you be able to tell me my address and criminal history.
OK, so even if you pay cash, there's video surveillance in the store, and surveillance (license tag, video, etc) on the route. And that's linked to the number. Then there's the number that you call from to activate the burner phone account, which may have some identity information. Plus geolocation data for that, and for the burner phone.
When I was living in Brazil to buy any kind of SIM card you had to give your CPF or whatever it was called number from your residency card. I believe many countries have this rule as coiner terrorism measure or whatever. Of course for bad guys it’s trivial to go around those restrictions.
And that's a near best case scenario in the US, UK, etc. In most of Europe and many other countries, you have to officially register a SIM card with an ID/residence document to use it.
Right, I meant that the scenario described is a near-best case in a global context as many (most?) countries unlike the US/UK/etc. require ID verification.
I don't believe this is true. It's very trivial to find a prepaid SIM in the US that one can just purchase, activate, and top-up with reload cards (which in turn can also be purchased with cash). Postpaid plans do often require ID verification because of the credit that is being extended, which I think is more than reasonable.
OK, so even if you pay cash, there's video surveillance in the store, and surveillance (license tag, video, etc) on the route. And that's linked to the number. Then there's the number that you call from to activate the burner phone account, which may have some identity information. Plus geolocation data for that, and for the burner phone.