Reposting from a previous Ham Radio comment thread [1]
One factor that I bring up whenever the “ham radio is dying” discussion happen is the FCC public database and safety/doxxing, specifically for marginalized communities such as Trans individuals and Black folks. It, itself, is creating a safety concern in modern society for people that may want to join the hobby but fear doxxing and harassment.
If I give out my call sign on the Internet (or on the air) you now know my real name, address, and every past address I’ve ever used. So let’s say I registers as Bob Smith at 123 Fake St 4 years ago, and now I go by Susan Smith at 456 Example Blvd you’d know all that information with a simple lookup.
The only real semi-workaround is when someone first licenses (and you probably don’t know this at first) is to use a PO Box, otherwise any address change will be on record.
This is a real problem, and the FCC will deny any anonymization requests (I know, I’ve tried). The fact you can easily get so much information about someone so easily from ULS makes me extremely wary about sharing my callsign anywhere like the internet. I can only imagine how much this must suck for vulnerable populations.
This is definitely somewhere that the FCC could stand to modernize. Clearly the FCC needs your contact information - but is it necessary to share your current address _and_ all address history with the world to anybody that asks for it?
Not holding my breath for any progress to be made here, though.
As radio is a decentralized, peer-to-peer communication system there is little incentive for the govt to make it better/easier. In fact the incentives run the other way.
Is revoking your callsign and retaking the exam to get a different callsign a viable way to erase your address/identity history? Sadly it doesn't solve the problem that your new callsign still doxxes your new location/identity from that point forward.
Purging history never was the answer to changing your name or gender. It’s not practical, not pragmatic, and not under one’s control. Just like with many restrictions, the answer is social/legal contracts and not technical prohibition.
They answer that in their third paragraph. Due to the public nature of the info in the FCC's ham license registration database, I assume, and not wanting everyone on the internet to know their real name and current home address in case someone wants to harass them.
I don't except for Ham Radio related things (Ham forums, Twitter that's only for Ham, etc..), so I'm fairly silo'd on my social media presence with regards to that.
I'd be more free with putting it in my Github, HN Profile, Reddit, and other places if it didn't fully dox me.
One factor that I bring up whenever the “ham radio is dying” discussion happen is the FCC public database and safety/doxxing, specifically for marginalized communities such as Trans individuals and Black folks. It, itself, is creating a safety concern in modern society for people that may want to join the hobby but fear doxxing and harassment.
If I give out my call sign on the Internet (or on the air) you now know my real name, address, and every past address I’ve ever used. So let’s say I registers as Bob Smith at 123 Fake St 4 years ago, and now I go by Susan Smith at 456 Example Blvd you’d know all that information with a simple lookup.
The only real semi-workaround is when someone first licenses (and you probably don’t know this at first) is to use a PO Box, otherwise any address change will be on record.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24308712