Pre-paid Phones and Privacy

May 17, 2010

Are Prepaid Phones More Private?
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

The answer to your question is Yes...and No...Let me explain ;-). Prepaid phones offer more privacy because most prepaid providers don't require you to provide a name and address, or any other personal information. Some to require that some of this information be supplied at the time of account activation, however, they don't validate/require that any of the information actually be correct. You'd be surprised how many Mickey Mouses and Britney Spears there are on file with prepaid carriers! Many operators that do require an address, mostly use it for area code/phone number assignment, do validate that the address is a valid postal address. That said, you don't need to use your address; any valid postal address will suffice.

So in that sense, without your personal name or address on file, and no link to your credit report, prepaid phones inherently offer a greater degree of privacy. So that's the "Yes" part of the answer.

The "No" part of the answer is that in general prepaid phone numbers are treated the same way as any other phone numbers. Meaning that they're in the public domain just as much as any other wireless phone number. The good side of it is that if your phone number is listed somewhere, your other personal information is not attached to it.

The good news is that you can register your number with the National Do Not Call Registry, which means that telemarketers and the like aren't allowed to call you. If they do somehow get a list with your number on it, and they don't properly scrub it against this registry, you can file a complaint, and they can be fined for each violation! Definitely something to consider if you want to ensure your number remains private.

Hope this helps!

Pre-paid Phones and Privacy

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Pre-paid Phones and Privacy

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