FCC phone ID plan could end burner phones

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com. Buying a phone without tying it directly to your identity could get much harder. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering tougher "know your customer" rules for voice providers. The proposal would push phone companies to collect and keep more personal information before giving many new or renewing customers access to service. That could include your name, physical address, government-issued identification number and an alternate phone number. The FCC says the goal is to make life harder for scammers, robocallers and criminals who abuse phone networks. That sounds reasonable at first. Nobody wants more fake bank calls, Medicare scam texts or urgent messages from crooks pretending to be family members. Yet this proposal raises a much bigger question. How