UK: Passports Will Be Needed To Buy Mobile Phones

conceited

UK: Passports Will Be Needed To Buy Mobile Phones

October 19th, 2008 Via: Times:
Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.
Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society.
A compulsory national register for the owners of all 72m mobile phones in Britain would be part of a much bigger database to combat terrorism and crime. Whitehall officials have raised the idea of a register containing the names and addresses of everyone who buys a phone in recent talks with Vodafone and other telephone companies, insiders say.
The move is targeted at monitoring the owners of Britain’s estimated 40m prepaid mobile phones. They can be purchased with cash by customers who do not wish to give their names, addresses or credit card details.
The pay-as-you-go phones are popular with criminals and terrorists because their anonymity shields their activities from the authorities. But they are also used by thousands of law-abiding citizens who wish to communicate in private.
The move aims to close a loophole in plans being drawn up by GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham, to create a huge database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain.
The “Big Brother” database would have limited value to police and MI5 if it did not store details of the ownership of more than half the mobile phones in the country.


http://cryptogon.com/?p=4541

Run_to_da_hills

The British authorities already have much of this information on tap from registered accounts with service providers. They can also use triangulation from transmitter signals to track suspect using unregistered devices. There is millions of handsets in current use so it would take a long time before these would get filtered out. Criminals and terrorists are hardly going to register. :rolleyes:

d0gb0y

From looking around a bit I see that this is already implemented in France & Switzerland, so it could potentially be in use in many more countries.
voluntary tracking system, i've never had a mobile phone :pac:

conceited

Terrorists? What terrorists?

Run_to_da_hills

d0gb0y wrote: »

From looking around a bit I see that this is already implemented in France & Switzerland, so it could potentially be in use in many more countries.
voluntary tracking system, i've never had a mobile phone :pac:

It will inevitably come in to Ireland through the EU under British or US pressure. I think the current government would be too embarrassed to make the move.

Use your mobile and you are pin pointed to within 15 feet, same goes for 3G Broadband.:eek:
(Even if your phone is switched off they can locate it, extreme cases only)

Kama

Its a nonsense as pointed out by people like Schneier...anyone doing something dubious can just get a pay-as-go from another country that has a agreement with a UK provider. Like a lot of kneejerk police-state measures, it makes normal peoples lives more inconvenient and does absolutely squat in hard security terms...

bonkey

Kama wrote: »

Its a nonsense as pointed out by people like Schneier...anyone doing something dubious can just get a pay-as-go from another country that has a agreement with a UK provider.

Until such times as all countries with whom the UK providers have such agreements also require this type of registration, yes.

To get from the "no-one has it" stage to the "everyone has it", one has to pass through the "some people have it, and therefore its easy to get around" stage. That doesn't make this stage pointless or nonsense - merely not an end-game.

it makes normal peoples lives more inconvenient and does absolutely squat in hard security terms...

In Switzerland and France - the two countries who already have it - that argument doesn't hold. In both countries, you're expected/required to carry ID. So being asked to produce said ID to make a purchase isn't inconvenient.

In Britain...fair enough....people have to remember to bring ID on those not-so-common days when they head off to buy a phone.

Kama

At which point innovation will have moved on, and there'll be new loopholes.

Even currently, skype has been used by the Taliban fr'instance...Even in unencrypted communication, you have more false positives than make it work, due to there being no effective way to tell 'nasty' and 'nice' apart.

The surveillance net on everyone else widens, with no real benefits in actual security.

Run_to_da_hills

Global subscription to mobile phones could be carried out very simply and effectivly and could be drafted in “overnight“ just as the strict airline security measures in the wake of 9/11.

All it takes is a major "terrorist" spectacular involving a mobile phone used as detonation device. such would be a "suitcase" nuclear bomb triggered in a European or American City. The follow up panic would be global and all the service providers could be then forced by authorities into registering all their customers.

RTG and contract could be given a cut off date for non subscription and only re activated after going through a rigerous electronic registration procedure using their passport along with their IMEI and sim details.

The technology is currently available to isolate stolen phones and a data base is shared between all the major service providers.

Skype and other VOIP can be traced through IP settings and also credit card top ups, Im sure the US & UK authorities are working on ways and means to try and monitor it.

conceited

The us and uk intercept all communication be it land air or otherwise.
And i mean every last thing. They don't need to work on ways to "try" and monitor anything.

Run_to_da_hills

conceited wrote: »

The us and uk intercept all communication be it land air or otherwise.
And i mean every last thing. They don't need to work on ways to "try" and monitor anything.

Except pidgeons

TheEnforcer

Kama wrote: »

. Like a lot of kneejerk police-state measures, it makes normal peoples lives more inconvenient and does absolutely squat in hard security terms...

This is not about security, its about tracking the HERD.

When will people ever catch on. There are no "terrorists", only state sponsored goons. Look into false flag operations.

How to derail a peaceful protest, get the "lads" dressed up and into action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1nHvvkzvA