Rights secondary in mobile ID plan

[rickfarang]

Not that anyone would make inappropriate use of information about where a particular person was at any given time.

 

 

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Source: Bangkok Post online version. Wednesday, 20 April 2005, Last updated 9:36 AM Thai local time

 

Rights secondary in mobile ID plan

 

Chaturon: Govt won't retreat in a tight spot

 

POST REPORTERS

 

Photo caption:

Mobile phones seized from unlicensed shops and roadside stalls are put on display at Pattani provincial police headquarters, where people whose phones have been lost or stolen can check to see if theirs is among them. ? THAWATCHAI KHEMKAMNERD Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng says consumer rights should be ''less of a concern'' when it came to registering SIM cards, while mobile phone network providers insist the controls must be backed up with proper regulations.

 

Mobile phone operators were downbeat yesterday, forecasting impracticalities.

 

They said they could not start demanding that customers produce national ID cards or passports to buy SIM cards until the law permitted them to do so. The process might require a regulatory amendment, they said.

 

Analysts said SIM card registration was more complicated than people thought.

 

The government has argued the ID card data will be helpful in going after insurgents who bought SIM cards to operate mobile phones used to remotely detonate bombs in the deep South.

 

Some customers feared an invasion of privacy and possible identity theft from revealing their ID card numbers when they registered. They said their privacy must not be endangered for the sake of national security since ID cards are used in all types of transactions in Thailand.

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the registration, if implemented, would not infringe on consumer rights and that any changes to regulations would just be a matter of straightening out some rules.

 

''We won't go so far as amending the law,'' he said.

 

Mr Thaksin said existing users must be offered incentives to voluntarily register their SIM cards. The government is reportedly considering a six-month deadline for current users to register.

 

Mr Chaturon said the measure would not be so extreme as to put at stake personal rights and freedoms. ''This is not about tapping phone lines. We're not keen to know what people are talking to each other about. That's irrelevant,'' he said.

 

The government would not retreat into a shell simply because it was too afraid everything it set out to do would trample on the rights of consumers or private companies. ''We're not at a point where rights and freedom should be the primary concern,'' he said.

 

Democrat party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, however, said all precautions must be taken against misuse of personal information. SIM card registration as a crime deterrent must be launched in tandem with other measures, he said.

 

Mr Chaturon said the plan to control SIM cards had not yet been concluded. Cabinet had not made any decision on the issue which required further consultation with Information and Communication Technology Ministry, the National Telecommunication Commission, security agencies and mobile phone operators.

 

Nonetheless, Mr Chaturon conceded the government was at a juncture where it could still decide whether to press ahead with the registration or backtrack if the plan was not viable.

 

Mr Thaksin, meanwhile, was confident the controls would be exhaustive with a computerised tracking system to monitor foreign-origin SIM cards too.

 

He insisted it was easier and made more sense to keep tabs on SIM cards than control production of ammunition.

 

Gen Sirichai Tunyasiri, chief of the Southern Border Provinces Peace-building Command, said customs officials at border checkpoints would look out for illegal SIM cards smuggled in from Malaysia.

 

Meanwhile, telecom operators in the deep South expressed cautious optimism about SIM card registration.

 

Chainarong Lertvachirakul, deputy secretary-general of the Narathiwat chamber of commerce, said the regulation would prove useless in curbing violence unless Malaysian-registered SIM cards brought over by tourists and visiting relatives of people in the three border provinces were also screened.

[mongon]

So when I arrive in LOS with my phone that does not have an international SIM card/plan, I have to register it anyway because customs won't know this. Right?

 

Sometimes I just buy a cell phone in LOS when I visit. SInce I don't want my name attached to the sim card, I'll just have someone buy it for me. Problem solved. That Toxin gang are a clever bunch.

 

OK they really are not as stupid as they appear. They know that registering 21 million SIM cards and tens of millions of tourists sim cards every year will not prevent a single cell phone bomb. Does anyone really think the Toxin crowd could be that stupid?

 

The few cell phone bombings in the south are just a pre-text to put in place an enormous domestic intelligence gathering apparatus. If the police suspect either for good reason or a stupid reason that an individual is up to no good, they will be able to check every number they called and every number that called them. And will know the names of everyone attached to those numbers. Very useful if you are the police. Or if the administration wants to keep tabs on what opposition groups are up to. Or newspaper editors. Or...

[Mentors]

The registering here in Switzerland (about 600'000 cards) last year was a big fiasco.

[Guest]

So, correct me if I am wrong, but to take this one step further:

 

lest say You are on holiday in Phuket, someone takes your "registered" cell phone, goes south with it, uses it to trigger a bomb, and the next thing you know you and all on your phone list are in deep shit?

[Hardy641]

The whole thing is a farce. There is nobody who seriously believes that a terrorist attack can be stopped by this nonsense. Every day phones are lost or stolen. Who gonna control the second hand phone markets???

 

On the other hand there might be well a hidden agenda. Thaksin?s family still owns AIS and to get free access to the personal data of 15 million hand phone users is a tremendous asset. AIS can easily directly contact subscribers and launch more personal marketing campaigns with these data....