chevrolux: So when you go to a cafe and buy a coffee and they give you a free wifi voucher would you expect they ask for ID at the same time and note down all your details? It is simply just a waste of time and would be a deterrent for any business offering free wifi if they had to have these kind of access controls.
The type of abuse you are talking about is a fairly small issue in the scheme of things. In reality if someone wanted to be extremely abusive on the internet there are things you can do to be anonymous from your home connection anyway so there wouldn't be much point imposing these access controls on free wifi providers as it wouldn't solve the problem at all.
If you buy coffee and get a free wifi voucher, then in a way they are identifying the user. You have got the memory of the person selling the coffee. They also may have video security in the cafe, and the coffee may have been purchased using a credit card, eftpos etc, so there are ways to partly track the user down if they cause abuse. The police could therefore use those methods to track them down. But I guess they are running the risk of being liable for any activities on their network, eg if someone downloads copyright content, or uses if for spamming. So I guess they will only have themselves to blame if they don't in some way identify the users of the connection. However I was referring to wifi hotspots in the street which anyone on that street can connect to without anyone sighting them.
People who provide fake details to facebook are essentially breaching their terms, and will eventually get their account deleted, and I think at some stage they will get tougher on people confirming eho they really are. However they do already have an identification method, and that is that they link the user to a NZ mobile number, and they can delete your account if you don't provide this. Google have the same system, although their's is voluntary. Maybe a simple text to phone number system life facebook users, maybe a less intrusive way of identifying the user. So they are still anonymous to a point, but if any illegal activity occurs, they could be tracked down.
The police would only be interested in threatening abuse. Not abuse that is just offensive due to resources. My problem is that the wifi provider took over 24 hours to respond, and then confirmed to me that they didn't do any logging at all so wouldn't investigate further.
But with cheap mobile data connections and more and more people having smart phones, the life of these wifi hotspots are probably limited anyway.
Regarding payphones, I haven't seen a payphone for ages and they maybe soon a thing of the past. But depending on how you use it, such if you pay by credit card, they could track you down still.
