SIM-card registration

[Gilrandir]

This idea visits our legislators from time to time. So far Ukraine enjoys free from registration purchase of SIM cards. You can buy a SIM card without identifying yourself. But once in a few years there appears a bill that mandates registration of the functioning SIM cards and selling of the new ones on condition of the user's registration. So, I would like to ask:
1. What is the law in your home country - are SIM cards registered (as in Russia) or unidentified?
2. What is your attitude to either system?

[Husar]

I think we just introduced new legislation that requires a registration.

I don't think it's bad since I always owned one registered to me anyway.
I'm not sure what the point is though given that it does not seem to stop criminal activity.
When my phone was stolen the guy called a friend who had a card registered to some lady in Berlin (other side of Germany). Obviously the registration to the lady was useless. It might be a better idea to somehow make people who lose their SIM or have it stolen deactivate it.

Her lack of awareness and neglection may have enabled a criminal to make calls anonymously under her name...

An unregistered card would be out there for anyone to use and noone to deactivate I guess.

[edyzmedieval]

It's the exact same in Romania. Every other year they reintroduce a bill to do registration for prepaid SIM cards.

[Gilrandir]

I think we just introduced new legislation that requires a registration.

I don't think it's bad since I always owned one registered to me anyway.

What about privacy and stuff like that?

I'm not sure what the point is though given that it does not seem to stop criminal activity.

I don't see a point in singling out SIM cards (aiming to "protect" phones, no doubt) and overlooking other commodities. Why not register tablets, vacuum cleaners or refrigerators?

It's the exact same in Romania. Every other year they reintroduce a bill to do registration for prepaid SIM cards.

Does it mean the bill becomes a law? In Ukraine it has never come to this (so far).

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Apparently this is huge in Africa.

Concerns do exist about government intrusiveness (Big Brother style) because of the ability to track sim cards. This is especially true of Africa, of course, where little or no "legacy" phone system exists that can offer an alternative means of communication..

While the ability to track a sim card does not necessarily mean you are tracking individuals, most individuals keep their phones with or near them on a constant basis, providing a de facto tracking capability.

It is not difficult to see how such a tracking capacity would aid the efforts of policing....for good and for ill both.


USA sim cards are not registered....with the government. Effectively they are registered with the phone service provider being used, except in the case of 'burner' phones. On the other hand, the NSA has the computing power and satellite access to scoop up all of the calls and get the info anyway, as long as the have the appropriate warrant.

[Husar]

What about privacy and stuff like that?

It's not like they're listening to your calls and at least here, the data collected by the providers is subject to telecommunication privacy laws and can only be requested with a warrant.

I don't see a point in singling out SIM cards (aiming to "protect" phones, no doubt) and overlooking other commodities. Why not register tablets, vacuum cleaners or refrigerators?

What would be the point of that? To use any of these devices for criminal activities, they usually need to be connected to a landline or a wireless network via SIM card. By tracking these access points, you cover your bases mostly. Knowing the owner of an offline device is relatively useless unless you are in the business of advertising.

Concerns do exist about government intrusiveness (Big Brother style) because of the ability to track sim cards. This is especially true of Africa, of course, where little or no "legacy" phone system exists that can offer an alternative means of communication..

While the ability to track a sim card does not necessarily mean you are tracking individuals, most individuals keep their phones with or near them on a constant basis, providing a de facto tracking capability.

It is not difficult to see how such a tracking capacity would aid the efforts of policing....for good and for ill both.

USA sim cards are not registered....with the government. Effectively they are registered with the phone service provider being used, except in the case of 'burner' phones. On the other hand, the NSA has the computing power and satellite access to scoop up all of the calls and get the info anyway, as long as the have the appropriate warrant.

It's the same here AFAIK, the phone carrier is the one with whom you register, I was assuming these proposed laws require the same. The carrier is required to keep the data private and can only give it to the police if they have a warrant. Or that's the theory at least.
SIM card tracking aka triangulation is only really useful in the African steppes though because it's not very exact and if it traces to a city block you usually cannot search the entire block in a law-abiding country.
Smartphones with GPS can be located more precisely, provided you have backdoor access to make the phone send its location to you. There was a small scandal when someone found out that iPhones stored all your movements in a file on the internal memory. IIRC Apple called it a mistake and "fixed" it.

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...-privacy-fears