3 ms·

Phone numbers individually identify people.

• mpyne 13y ago
  Strictly speaking, phone numbers identify phones. I mean, that's what we would say when the RIAA comes at us saying that IP address umpty-squat was used to download a movie, right? "Must have been my neighbor on my Wifi". "My friend was browsing my laptop". But either way, that's why the NSA must get a separate subpoena to get the subscriber information for a given phone number, if they don't already have it from earlier. And only after that can they get a warrant to allow for grabbing the data itself.
  • LoganCale 13y ago
    It's generally fairly easy for an ordinary person to find someone's identity with just their number, completely bypassing any sort of warrant/subpoena system. If I can do it, I'm sure the NSA does as well.
  • MichaelSalib 13y ago
    First of all, I don't find the IP address argument persuasive and I don't think most courts have either. Secondly, given that it is quite common for DHCP to give a single computer different addresses and nothing like that happens to phone numbers (which are intended to be persistent and not transient identifiers), I don't think your analogy works.