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ThailandPlus: Tracking app now mandatory for foreign tourists


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5 hours ago, apex2000 said:

What about tourists who do not have a mobile phone?

What about tourists who do not have an Internet connection to their phone?

No consideration of these people.

It only said they have to download the app prior to arrival. Nothing about actually using it or having an internet connection ????????. They have thought this through about as well as every other hair brained scheme that they think up!

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surely the solution is two phones, not no phones isn't it?

I never use my "go to" main phone when abroad. Only my travelling phone.

Phones set up with different email addresses and personal data.

I'm sure that Government agencies would be able to prove a link if they tried, but I'm not a spy so I doubt they would bother.

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2 minutes ago, VBF said:

Well my Thai phone is so old it still runs Android 4 and won't install many modern apps from the Play Store

But that's all i need in Thailand...so that's all i shall carry - simple. 

By the time I even consider returning (i.e. after quarantine is no longer needed) this silly idea will have died a death.

You are correct! Plus if anyone has  a Nice Cheap priced Tablet or "Smart Phone" from China or Thailand... Do a search it might say running Android 7 or even up to 10... but Google search and scan it. 99% of the time it's a highly Modified "Not covered as a Google authorized Device" It is running a base system of Android 4!!

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3 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

There are very very few people in Thailand so poor they don’t own a smart phone. 

Give for a few street beggars etc the vast majority of Thai’s own a smart phone - I challenge anyone to ask 10 random people waking down the street and not find 10 people with a smart phone in their pocket or handbag. 

 

 

Some people need to wake up!

 

I do know a few areas here in Thailand that the majority of Smart phones are now owned by Enterprising Lady Boys... How they were in the know to start collecting is as big a question as the statement that "Very Few People" here referring to Thai's again don't own a Smart Phone. What Rock are some people been hiding under...

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12 minutes ago, saminoz said:

I'm sorry maám, but you are full of <deleted>.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

Better to stay silent than to show your ignoarnce to everyone?

My information comes from a few years of working with modems & GPS, your information comes from <deleted> in your head.

 

 

IMG_20210221_153252.jpg

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1 hour ago, connda said:

"...world not infringe on visitor's right to privacy?"  That would be based on how you personally define infringement of privacy rights.  An application tracking your movement 24/7?  I define that as technology that is just like those used to track criminals on parole, just without the lock.  Mor Chana is already out there but the Thai government needs the extra-special tracking capability to keep their eyes on the pesky foreigners who are all seen as risks to Thai national security.  This isn't anything new.  The government has wanted to implement this for years but it would have impacted tourist numbers.  With the "Covid pandemic" as a backdrop and an excuse, they now roll it out.  And my guess is that if "Covid" was eradicated tomorrow, the ThailandPlus (invasive tracking) will remain in place forever after.  "New Normal" means never going back to the way things were. :dry:

It just makes me ponder how long it will take before they come after long-stay expats.  In Prathet Xenophobe I don't believe the elites running the show can help themselves. Paranoia and ingrained historical distrust of all foreigners is the norm and it's something that the "New Normal" will never change even as countries in the West are told by the likes of the World Economic Forum and "experts" that their borders must come down.  Thailand will be the next to the last country on that list right before North Korea.

In the meanwhile, TAT will be forecasting tourist numbers pulled out of a magician's hat.  Informed tourists will weigh all the now required regulations and requirements (such as ThailandPlus tracking) and make up their own minds whether or not to make Thailand a vacation choice.
Some informed foreigners will accept it and show up (those who don't mind being tracked and herded into chaperoned tour groups that are closely watched and monitored); other informed foreigners (like most of my American friends who have been coming here annually for years) will balk and go somewhere where the host country's government is more accepting of foreigners and magnitudes less paranoid.  It will all be a personal choice based on a tourist's appetite for lack of privacy vs freedom of movement.
So....
The bottom line:  Thailand will never recover their previous numbers of foreign tourists in the next 5 or 10 years if ever.  And they've done it to themselves because my guess is a lot of the regulations and requirements will remain in place well after the Covid scare is over and the world moves on to the next calamity.  And the requirements and regulations will be there to embrace the next "crisis" whatever it may be.
ThailandPlusNewNormal:thumbsup:  Now there ya have it!

A lot of truth - but then one must remember that wearing a crash helmet on a motorcycle is mandatory here - next time you are out just take 60 seconds to count how many do!

 

One can be almost certain that whichever system is mandated, it probably won't work, there will be no funding or infrastructure to enforce it, and no one will bother to follow or enforce it.

 

A bit like crash helmets on motorcycles really...

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1. Install app. As soon as the code is green, do a screenshot and use that throught your vacation.

2. Turn off all permissions from Settings and wander through Thailand. Use the screenshot to checkin if needed, I guess that one won't ever turn yellow or red.

3. Turn on all permissions once your vacation is finished and you are back at Suvarnabhumi.

 

Might not appeal to the regular tourists though ????

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I guess we are again the bad guys since we need an enchanced tracking app and the Thais can settle with just a tracking app. If this product is so good then it's very bad that they let Thai citizen miss out on this enchanced appand let the foreign people get all the goodies. 

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1 hour ago, davidstipek said:

Not all Cell Phone have GPS either... They gonna replace these phones in exchange for visit? People would not Buy just to impose being Tracked!! Also those with GPS... It can be disabled at the push of a Button!!

 

Dont need GPS to track a mobile phone, it can use a method called triangulation to track you well enough

 

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4 minutes ago, youngster30uk said:

Dont need GPS to track a mobile phone, it can use a method called triangulation to track you well enough

 

Technically yes but practically very cumbersome.

Tracking everyone? 

Unlikely  https://www.quora.com/How-could-a-civilian-triangulate-a-mobile-phone  or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking

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11 minutes ago, VBF said:

Technically yes but practically very cumbersome.

Tracking everyone? 

Unlikely  https://www.quora.com/How-could-a-civilian-triangulate-a-mobile-phone  or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking

Unlikely if you are a random civilian and few mouse clicks and keyboard taps if you are a mobile network provider staff.

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5 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

No smart phone? No problem!

A mandatory electronic tag fitted around your ankle...

I doubt there are many people without a smartphone. For those that don't, if they have an electronic tag are they waterproof?

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2 minutes ago, fdsa said:

Unlikely if you are a random civilian and few mouse clicks and keyboard taps if you are a mobile network provider staff.

What I meant was the manual effort involved (to which you allude) to track everyone is unlikely to be feasible. 

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Just now, Sumarianson said:

Not every tourist uses a phone and certainly does not want to use it on roaming rates. What will the government do about those people? Refuse their money? 

 

How hard can it be ???

Get a local Sim...  These applications can be set to run without using any data. 

 

Any tourist wishing to visit Thailand must have a Smart Phone and Run the App - IF that information is clear people make arrangements. 

IF a tourist doesn’t like that idea they can vote with their feet. 

 

IF a tourist arrives in Thailand without a smart phone there must be an option for them to purchase one at the airport (a cheap 3000baht one or even cheaper, along with a local Sim card. 

 

This is something which can be done. But, it will be poorly enforced, so the only stumbling point for tourist arrivals is showing the App on their smart phone when arriving - how hard is that ?

Don’t have a phone - buy one on arrival. 

Don’t have the money to buy a 3000 baht phone - Go home ! not enough money to be here anyway. 

 

Its not hard if the message and rules are clear and don't keep changing from week to week. 

 

It will all change next week anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

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Okay to put this all to rest...

 

Yes, GPS can be turned off. This is on older phones to keep up and your Data from being Tracked... Period!

 

On newer Phones if the Battery is not customer removeable you as Owner of Phone can do this:

1.Turn Off Emergency Location Services

2.Turn off Google Location Services

3.also the search for location by WIFI (even when switched off)

4.Same with BT (These last 2 will search even when program is off, to completely disconnect you must do so by turning these switches off in Location Services or where ever Manufacturer has hidden them)

 

Plus you can completely disable Location Services, PERIOD!

 

Going further you have the option to disable any or all Permissions. This include those on full time (even in sleep ode). Or those that use only while in use.

 

Now to go further... Tracking is how Programs Track your usage of cell phone, Tablet or Computer. Be advised that completely disabling is easy... But can limit your use of certain Programs example FB, Windows, Google... Example of this is Google disables Play Store and the ability to upgrade installed programs  (If you disable their Tracking) Be it know that these are steps to track everyone and Manufacturers are being Mandated by the Government to do so hidden under this Usage scenario. But also by Law they are required to provide user being able to Disable... What ever they choose, They may not like it, people will say you can't... But it is within your Rights!

 

Now I just got done asking 15 people who went to Fitness Center and 2 Restaurants then I walked down around the Corner to 7/11 and their Gas Station... be surprised!!  11 out of 15, either did not have, was disabled and why? Tired of being tracked! of the 15, 7 did not own Smart phone, 9 were using a Google device based on Android 4 (unit saying it had Version 7, 8 or even 10...

 

Tha closes last argument.  Now another user here owes me a Couple Beers f???????? for my time... AND yes I did wear a Mask!!????

 

Location Service when physically turn off Disables all! Or you have option to choose who, where and what... individually!

Edited by davidstipek
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19 minutes ago, youngster30uk said:

Not at all, the network provider can simply auto record the data, with no manual work at all.

Sure but the data alone is useless without being analysed. At some stage, manual intervention is needed, on a scale that's just not practical. 

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