Foreigner database to be ready in six months

[JAG]

3 minutes ago, tukkytuktuk said:

How long until the database is hacked or leaked online and everyones details are available to any identity theft gang? Which has happened many times before.

 

https://www.thephuketnews.com/immigration-data-breach-puts-southern-expats-personal-details-online-56804.php

Six months and five hours?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

11 minutes ago, JAG said:

No, they will update to XP.

 

That little chap who hangs around next to the ATMs as you come into Pantip Plaza is standing by to handle the upgrade...

 

Or the geeky cousin of the wife of some bigwig in Immigration who just got out of university and is still looking for their first job. That would pretty much meet the contracting criteria.

 

[Jools]

Wild-eyed xenophobia on par with North Korea. "The foreigners are polluting our pristine Thai culture". The Thai equivalent of the "Red Scare".

[bluesofa]

17 minutes ago, tukkytuktuk said:

How long until the database is hacked or leaked online and everyones details are available to any identity theft gang. Which has happened many times before.

 

https://www.thephuketnews.com/immigration-data-breach-puts-southern-expats-personal-details-online-56804.php

They were available years ago. I've posted this before:

When I worked for a holiday rental company, they of course had to register all foreigners staying in any of the houses.

 

The company managed to get approval to do it online, using the immigration database, it took months. The process was to login, enter the passport details (the online version of TM30) and logout.

 

I noticed one day that their system let you wander round once you were logged in, no restrictions, you could look at anything. I remember doing a search for illegal immigrants in Chonburi. For some reason, the previous month all those listed were only Chinese nationals.

 

[samsensam]

3 hours ago, bluesofa said:

They can could do this now, but it's just sheer ineptitude if they think a new system will make a scrap of difference.

At present they have the same data available, just don't don't do anything useful with it.

The only plus thing I can see is the scrapping of the TM6 card, although that's not really a big deal.

 

Obviously I shouldn't really mention that it was only a few months ago there was the great idea to "improve" the existing TM6, by making it shorter, but from what I've heard, the boxes you need to fill in are smaller, making it more awkward.

 

[Sarcasm mode: on] Must be implemented in six months, eh? That's doublespeak for nothing will happen and they all hope everyone will have forgotten about it. I wait eagerly to be proved wrong. [Sarcasm mode: off]

 

right, they have arrival and departure information and each guest house, hotel, etc. has to complete a form each day with details of those staying.

 

what do they do with all the passport /id card data they collect every time someone changes money?

[bluesofa]

3 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

right, they have arrival and departure information and each guest house, hotel, etc. has to complete a form each day with details of those staying.

 

what do they do with all the passport /id card data they collect every time someone changes money?

They have some arrival information from the airlines, don't they? They don't necessarily have any departure information, unless perhaps it's a return ticket with the same airline, and the airline provide that data?

 

Regarding the TM30 all the hotels need to fill in, as was stated in the article, it needs to be tightened up. I stayed in three hotels/guest houses last month, not one of them was interested in registering me.

 

I think the details supplied when changing money is purely for the Bank Of Thailand use, so in theory if you want to change Baht back to your original currency, it is possible to trace it.

[Henrik Andersen]

All the comments are only negative why?? 

It's seems as a good idea and prove government can thinking meaby the system will work because of foreigner company make it 

[9KPhalak]

Can you imagine how slow the lines at the airport are going to be?

 

[RickBradford]

2 minutes ago, Henrik Andersen said:

All the comments are only negative why?? 

It's seems as a good idea and prove government can thinking meaby the system will work because of foreigner company make it 

It doesn't matter how good the system is potentially, if it is managed by people who don't understand it, or can't be bothered to operate it correctly.

 

When systems are managed by smart people, they make things easier. When systems are managed by idiots, they make things more difficult, even for the idiots themselves.

 

Given that my experience is that most Thais are unable to screw the top back on a bottle of water without cross-threading it, the evidence is strongly in favor of a complex system like this turning into another national joke.

[Henrik Andersen]

3 minutes ago, RickBradford said:

It doesn't matter how good the system is potentially, if it is managed by people who don't understand it, or can't be bothered to operate it correctly.

 

When systems are managed by smart people, they make things easier. When systems are managed by idiots, they make things more difficult, even for the idiots themselves.

 

Given that my experience is that most Thais are unable to screw the top back on a bottle of water without cross-threading it, the evidence is strongly in favor of a complex system like this turning into another national joke.

Sorry but there is intelligent Thai people 

It seems meny farangs just don't like Thais and always complaining why are your guy's here if the grass are greener on the other side?? 

Thailand have meny problem yes but it still a nice country and nice people 

[bluesofa]

8 minutes ago, Henrik Andersen said:

All the comments are only negative why?? 

It's seems as a good idea and prove government can thinking meaby the system will work because of foreigner company make it 

For me, most of my comments are negative just through personal experience, mainly with most government departments here, not just immigration.

Hardly anyone in government offices will volunteer any information. I've realised from my own bitter experience that it's important to ask the right questions in order to resolve a particular issue.

 

Yes, I'm sure it sounds xenophobic, but if there was a foreign company involved as consultants I think that would be positive.

Foreigners by definition have already had first-hand experience of other countries and their immigration systems, as well as experiencing Thai immigration.

 

 

[speedtripler]

2 hours ago, jenny2017 said:

  And keeping tourists out will create the biggest problems. When people start to go to other beaches in other countries, there won't be a return to something that isn't cool anymore. 

Thailand hasn't been cool for about a decade 

They've been (successfully)  trying to take the fun out of everything 

 

Slowly Killing the reasons  people came to Thailand, one by one

[YetAnother]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The single platform database would help prevent crimes by foreigners, such as call-centre scams and those related to underworld activities, Kongcheep said.

people can say whatever garbage they want; bottom line, it further focuses on expats;

makes our life here more uncomfortable

[nong38]

3 hours ago, mdmayes said:

Two problems I see with this. 1. To have a system up and running (bug free) in six months is a very tall order. Tall as in Mount Everest tall. 2. This will mean hour upon hour upon hour of line ups at immigration coming into the country. Having to enter your own info at electronic stations. I forcast that it will be one big cluster at the airports.

Which is probably why it wont happen, as always its strong on say and weak on do, to many bone idle people not doing what they are paid to do.

[mduras01]

Saudi Arabia implemented this system rather quickly. Full scan/fingerprint reader. Not impossible with the proper funding. If successful, it will have a big impact on immigration A to Z.

[gk10002000]

It could be a very simple database.  A bit tricky to update from the remote locations, depending how they implement it.  And the status and accuracy of data in it is going to be very suspect.  entering and leaving records correct and reasonably up to date, say within 24 or 48 hours?  Possible with electronic stuff, unlikely with human data entry

[hkt83100]

If it will work as well as the Online-90-Days-Joke, we will have to wait another 2 or 3 generations...

[Just Weird]

7 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Finally getting rid of the TM6 arrival card.

Such an awful imposition to have to fill that in, eh?

[speedtripler]

12 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

Such an awful imposition to have to fill that in, eh?

Just a waste of time in 2018... 

You can still write your address as : 

Hotel xyz and nobody bothers to check

 

Hard to keep tabs on 100,000+ people a day 

 

 

[PoorSucker]

1 hour ago, Just Weird said:

Such an awful imposition to have to fill that in, eh?

Guess you don't have to make a copy of that TM6 you filled out 12 years ago, every time you go to immigration. 

[Rhys]

10 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

Well done. What's next? Will I soon get a big scarlet-red "F" stamped in my passport, too?

 

I just hope there also will be a single-platform database for Thai nationals, because I hear there occasionally are criminals among the local population as well. Some of them are even in cahoots with those dangerous foreigners.

...shhh remember the time they wanted to put micro tracking chips in fighting cocks.....55555

[rwdrwdrwd]

10 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Finally getting rid of the TM6 arrival card.

No chance, the employees tasked with the maintenance of that warehouse full of useless documents would revolt. Unless they get one automatically generated and printed out for them then to physically file away in a pointless pile.

[cooked]

10 hours ago, jenny2017 said:

  And keeping tourists out will create the biggest problems. When people start to go to other beaches in other countries, there won't be a return to something that isn't cool anymore. 

Why should a data base with records of criminal activity keep tourists out? I would welcome it myself. Or are you saying that most tourists are criminals? The more criminals bend and circumvent the rules here, the more law abiding people have to suffer through direct bureaucracy. 

1. MANY other countries do this. (Interpol, the USA and Canada for example).

2, This is likely about terrorist activities.

[cooked]

10 hours ago, HiSoLowSoNoSo said:

Many old hands in this fair country do believe that the ones who suppose to keep out the criminals are the real criminals themselves. 

So what? You're against any attempt to keep criminals out?

Farangs themselves, many of them, don't hesitate to use bribery if it suits them, many old hands think that this encourages corruption.

[Lee4Life]

16 hours ago, RayHaas said:

Its about time!

While it may seem like a good thing to not have to fill out those pesky arrival/departure cards, be careful about thinking this means that things are "easing up" as far as foreigners are concerned. It appears that this is just one step of many in a new system they are developing to keep tabs on foreigners in the kingdom. You can thank all of the foreigners who come here and commit criminal acts for that!

[IamNoone88]

They need to get rid of the embarrassing immigration queues ......... the form is secondary.

[realenglish1]

How is this system going to work well when they cannot even get the 90-day reporting online to function properly 

 

Pipedream

[gk10002000]

15 hours ago, Briggsy said:

It won't work.

 

The I.T. will fail. The data protection will be non-existent. The smaller hotels, condos, apartments, etc. won't comply.

 

But most importantly, when it gets down to the level of actual application, the lofty goals will be long since forgotten and it will simply be turned into a revenue-raising exercise like all other initiatives.

yeah, the data will be all over the place.  And if it is all electronic and if one does NOT have a paper form with a stamp, then what?  "Mister computer says you no have.."  Try to reason with a low paid poorly trained clerk?  I would love some proper system, I just don't see the Thais doing it.  Now as for the smaller hotels and such, I can envision smart phone apps, in stead of PC based software, even though I still use a flip top voice and text only phone

[miamiman123]

The fox is watching the hen house...6 months? They have saying this for years! 

[madmitch]

12 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

If you look at how these systems already operate in other countries, a Thai person going to Australia get issued a visa against their passport number, no stamps or stickers in passport. Immigration in Australia scans the passport on arrival and the visa is in their system already length of stay, address etc, stay starts from that day.

 

Thai wife has never had to do anything more than have passport scanned, they already knew everthing about her.

The Australian system is excellent. The e-visa is surely the way forward, though most countries, including the UK and USA, despite its ESTA system, seem to be not much further forward than Thailand.

 

But how could Thailand cope with such a system? No full page stickers in the passport? No stamps? Without the pile of photocopies Immigration requires every time we visit their recycled paper supply would dry up!