Plan to Track All Foreigners – Not Just Tourists – By SIM Cards Moves Forward

[thailandgr]

BANGKOK — A plan to require all foreigners in Thailand to use a special SIM card that can track their location will be reviewed by authorities Tuesday afternoon.

Announced last week by the national telecom regulator, the plan would require anyone – not just tourists but everyone who doesn’t hold a Thai passport – to use the new SIM card which would enable the authorities to track its owner’s location at any time, said the Secretary General of the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.

No exceptions would be made for resident aliens on long-term visas such as those for employment, marriage or retirement.

“We will separate SIM cards for foreigners and Thais,” Takorn Tantasith said Monday. “The location will always be turned on in this SIM card for foreigners. And it cannot be turned off.”
The plan was first announced Aug. 2 following a meeting between telecommunication regulators from 10 ASEAN countries in Phuket, where Takorn claimed he learned about the same plan from Malaysian and Singaporean officials.

While those countries require SIM cards be registered under valid IDs, as is also the case in Thailand, they do not seem to have any such tracking system. The technical specifics, as to whether it would rely on a smartphone’s GPS signal or another method were not clear.

Takorn said the rationale was to maintain national security and prevent the transnational crime.

Foreign tourists would be able to continue to use SIM cards brought in from other countries under roaming service and would not be required to turn their location on. They would only receive a location-tracking SIM card once they showed their passport to purchase one from a Thai service provider.

Takorn said he was unconcerned about any rights or privacy issues raised by the system, as he likened it to address foreigners writing in the address of their residences in immigration documents.

“We would just facilitate the police. So they could more easily track foreigners who enter the country and commit crimes,” he said. “The function is not in SIMs card for Thais because we can always easily track them.”

Takorn expects the policy to come into effect in six months.

While the system would raise concerns Thailand was moving closer to a Big Brother state, Takorn said foreigners shouldn’t worry, as police would need to seek a court order to track someone by their SIM card. He said any abuse of the system would be punished.

“If a service provider tracks the SIM’s location without a court order, they would be charged with a criminal offense.”

Takorn said it would also help maximize the use of pre-paid phone numbers in the country. Currently numbers must go unused 90 days before they are “recycled,” but he proposed that anyone leaving the country could have their number revoked after 15 days, instead.

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2016/08/09/plan-track-foreigners-not-just-tourists-sim-cards-moves-forward/

[thailandgr]

The NBTC, which also recently announced "no Pokemon catching" zones in response to the popular Pokemon Go game, did not explain how it would stop foreigners getting Thai people to buy unrestricted Sim cards for them

Thailand is considering requiring tourists to use special Sim cards that would allow authorities to track their mobile phones.

The plans have been approved in principle by Thailand's telecommunications regulator, which denies it is an invasion of privacy.

The body says it is intended to catch those who overstay their visa.

More than 19 million foreigners have visited Thailand this year, says Thailand's Tourism and Sports Ministry.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said the special Sim cards would come with tracking enabled, which the user could not turn off.

   

Tourists will still be able to use their home country Sim cards in Thailand, untracked

While the proposal has been approved by the NBTC, Secretary General Takorn Tantasith said the organisation would consult with police, tourism authorities and tour operators before deciding whether to implement it.

He added that foreigners working in Thailand would not be required to use the special Sim cards, although some local reports have quoted him saying they would.

                                                                                                   

The proposal has been backed by other parts of Thailand's military government.

"It will be helpful, if any foreigner comes and commit crimes, because in the past they have been able to flee or it can be difficult to find them," said Pongsathorn Chansri, an official in the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

[thailandgr]

BANGKOK — A government regulator Wednesday played down the certainty of tracking all foreigners by phone SIM cards after the plan was met with concern and ridicule.

Takorn Tantasith, secretary general of the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission said the plan approved Tuesday requiring foreigners use SIM cards which report their locations would not move forward without input from the public – including foreign residents.

“Expats living in Thailand can also join the discussion, once we hold a public hearing on this,” he said Wednesday.

He said the hearing would be attended by service providers, police, immigration officers and even tour company operators. Most of the media interest at Wednesday’s news conference was dedicated to Takorn’s concerns about Pokemon Go, however.

Would it Work?

If the idea goes forward, does the technology support what’s been suggested?

Don Sambandaraksa, a correspondent with Telecom Asia, said the tech already exists and in fact was made commercially available last year by AIS.

What’s been proposed by the commission, he said, opens the door to abuse by allowing the government to circumvent legal safeguards to track people.

“The only reason they would need to implement SIM-based tracking is if they want to track people without needing a court order and telco cooperation,” he said. “There’s no other logical explanation.”

Triangulating locations has long been possible through tracking the cell phone towers users connect to – the kind of metadata controversially collected by the United States’ NSA.

The difference is making a SIM card which would actively report its locational information over the phone network — like SMS. No internet data, no GPS required.

The problem is if it’s collected by a government server, Don said.

“The only reason they might need special SIMs would be to bypass the telco,” he said. “So they don’t have to have any moral qualms about tracking people.”

Though scant on details just how it would work, Takorn has insisted no privacy would be infringed upon, as he believed the information would only be obtainable with a court warrant. He said it would be an advantage for foreign tourists, as authorities could get help to them faster.

He stressed the policy didn’t come from the military government but came from an Aug. 2 meeting of telecommunication regulators of 10 ASEAN countries in Phuket.

Don was unconvinced.

“The junta has made it clear again and again that when it comes to cracking down on dissent on the internet, they are willing to pay any cost and endure any ridicule from the international community,” he said  “I would not be surprised if they do issue every single foreigner these independent-of-carrier, involvement-tracking SIMs just to persecute a select few.”

Moving Forward

The commission’s board approved the plan Tuesday. Despite approving it, Takorn said some flaws were raised by board members. One of the major issues, he said, was that some board members didn’t think it should apply to long-term foreign residents.

“The focus is definitely on tourists,” he said. “But there should be a discussion about whether some foreigners who live here over a year should be allowed to use normal SIM cards.”

Others argued that existing SIM cards, all of which sold in Thailand must be registered, can be used to triangulate approximate the locations of their holders already.

“If it’s determined that existing SIM cards can find the location of users already, then we won’t issue this new type,” he said.

It’s the second issue Takorn has raised in recent days in which there seems to be little supply of knowledge informing the process of regulatory decision making.

The root of the idea, Takorn said, came from trying to solve the shortage of phone numbers.

With the SIM card’s tracking information, he said they could more quickly recycle prepaid numbers removed from the country by tourists.

On Monday he suggested numbers could be revoked after someone left for 15 days, a suggestion  which also raised concern among long-term residents who travel.

No date was given for a public hearing on the plan; Takorn said the whole process would take about six months.

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2016/08/10/expats-exempt-sim-card-tracking/