ThailandPlus: Tracking app now mandatory for foreign tourists

[jvs]

No need to get all upset about this yet another genius idea by some one

in the government.

It will be retracted and if not the app will not work anyway!Remember where you are!

[fdsa]

1 hour ago, davidstipek said:

Plus you can completely disable Location Services, PERIOD!

You can only display a "location services disabled" icon on phone's display, but to actually disable the services or not is up to modem's operating system.

Your phone just sends a command like "please disable the tracking dear sir" to the modem, and modem always returns "OK" regardless of actually disabling or enabling tracking the location.

 

A bit more information on how do modems work: https://c.mi.com/thread-2254781-1-0.html

 

[KhunG]

16 minutes ago, davidstipek said:

Wrong! I am in Chiang Mai... GPS was and is  (right now) showing me either in Chiang Rai or Lampang.. Accuracy depends on Tower being used. Or how efficient Companies want their equipment to be... Here Cheaper is considered better (more money in some ones pocket!)

GPS doesn't use towers.  It uses satellites. 

 

If you're getting that level of inaccuracy, something is wrong.  Either your device can't see enough  satellites (indoors?) or it's broken.  I regularly use GPS with google maps and it is accurate within a few meters.   Running GPS Test right now there are 39 satellites in view and it's using 11, given an accuracy of +/- 4m. 

[paulikens]

the thais presume all foreigners have smart phones cuz they think all foreigners are rich

[lkv]

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

Thailand have wanted what for years??? Are you saying Thailand have wanted to track every tourist for years?

 

That's exactly right, with communist surveillance ideas that China uses succesfully but they are perhaps harder to implement in Thailand. Not every tourist, everyone.

 

You must have forgotten when they wanted to ask everyone extending a visa what bars and restaurants they go to, and for their Facebook etc. It was called the "foreigner information form".

 

They had some special sim card for foreigners ideas also a few years ago.

 

BTS card registration, so that they know which train station you go on and off. 

 

And many more. All for the purpose of "national security".

 

So yes, the current administration's idea was and still is to turn Thailand into a surveillance state, like China.

 

 

[rioD]

Two phones make the tracking impossible.  Load the tracker on one phone then carry and use another during the visit.

[cjinchiangrai]

2 minutes ago, rioD said:

Two phones make the tracking impossible.  Load the tracker on one phone then carry and use another during the visit.

Or load the app and try to help the covid situation. Why does everyone feel so special that they need to be able to spread disease with impunity?

 

[Dundee2308]

8 hours ago, Dart12 said:

turning your phone off doesn't stop gps.

Neither does not having cell data plan.

Take the battery out and you are you can be sure yr phone is 100 percent dead.

 

[ttrd]

3 hours 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. 

 

 

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

 

* Sorry to say,  but you are wrong - there are many thais that don't even own a phone ...

[Asking for a friend]

Dear Thailand,

 

I have the Thai wife, I have the recipes, I have the memories. I shall not be returning. Enjoy your little Orwellian cargo cult.

[mikebike]

2 minutes ago, Asking for a friend said:

Dear Thailand,

 

I have the Thai wife, I have the recipes, I have the memories. I shall not be returning. Enjoy your little Orwellian cargo cult.

Dear placeholder. Thailand's not missing you. ????????????

[Richard Allen Weaver]

I'm am so glad I'm retired and not dependant working here especially in any job associated with the airport, hotels, restaurants, bars, beaches, entertainment, transportation, retail, wholesale, hospitals( ie medical tourism), markets, malls, farming, 7/11, mom and pop noodle shops, .........

[mikebike]

8 minutes ago, ttrd said:

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

 

* Sorry to say,  but you are wrong - there are many thais that don't even own a phone ...

53 million smartphones in Thailand. That number means only children and old seniors don't have.

[mikebike]

I'm so sorry Thaiwrath. Facts make you sad. C'est domage.

[mikebike]

Now Thaiwrath is confused by facts. Is a safe space required?

[tingtongfarang]

I almost never put my smart phone in my pocket before going out the door, Most times i,m with the gf and she always has her phone... i dont need mine

[Jorgendk]

Don’t know about farangs from any other countries, but I do know that wary few Danes would go on holyday to Thailand, if they get tracked like that.
I myself don’t mind, but people do generally not want to get tracked.
For some reason they would not want anything to show that they are, say in Bick C. That they don’t mind paying by credit card, that also shows it, is another story.

The long and short of it, is that this app, will make sure that most tourist will stay away from Thailand

[Isaan sailor]

No doubt, if successful, expats will also be required to use it—so the government can keep us informed, of course.

[KC 71]

9 hours ago, SGD said:

Mandatory for people who don't have smart phones ?

Some sort of implant perhaps ?

Ludicrous.

The implant thing is actually in the pipeline !

[Yahooka]

26 minutes ago, tingtongfarang said:

I almost never put my smart phone in my pocket before going out the door, Most times i,m with the gf and she always has her phone... i dont need mine

 I leave my phone in my room too while Im here.I wonder if they will they make it mandatory to bring your phone with you at all time next ????.

[KC 71]

6 hours ago, PGSan said:

You cannot be serious!! 

Thats what McEnroe said ????

[Winky Wilson]

What if your a Buddist or a Monk and don't have desire for cell phone? This is a form of forced suffering. Very unThai.

[moe666]

9 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.

How many of these people are there

[KC 71]

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

My same friends say they pick up the pen, hover over the book, then move past.

Nobody ever checks you entered any information in the book.

(again, I would never do that)

i know a fella who signs his name ~'Hugh Janus' and "Ben Dover' ????

[tifino]

so they have by hook or by crook finally got their way to somehow track foreigners by phone  

 - a Plan already announced well before the covid scare was even released on the world

[swissie]

If they are serious about enforcing this App-thing, it would have to be done at Passport Control/Immigration at the Airport.

-Can the arriving visitor buy a cheap Smart Phone plus SIM Card, before he hits Passport Control?
Will "the enforcers" think this far ahead?

[the green light]

10 hours ago, bdenner said:

That's not good! Probably work as well as the online 90 day reporting site.

 

I assume the app will be required by returning Farang "residence" as well. How many of them don't use smart phones?

 

Certainly won't when their phone is turned off.

 

I guess the TAT will have to revise their figures again - down!

TRUE

I have 2 smart phone.. One I will download the app and leave it at home-it is the one the wife can reach me. and never go anywhere.

 

the other is the one I use daily for girls to reach me.. so I guess I am safe.

 

the government is so stupid to assume most foreigners  have one phone.

 

another useless thing

 

 

 

 

[KC 71]

3 hours ago, Peterphuket said:

I think this is violation of human rights and questionable.

I could add that to a lot of things that are going on these days.

[the green light]

1 hour ago, tingtongfarang said:

I almost never put my smart phone in my pocket before going out the door, Most times i,m with the gf and she always has her phone... i dont need mine

the government is so gong crazy about this pandemic.. they will do better to put their energy to start the vaccination and buy American vaccines instead of  depend on the home grown one which nobody will take it.

 

first of alll tracking individual is again the law ..that is like being in a communist country.

It is only affecting foreigners. How can a country open its border for foreign tourist when you need to watch them all the time.  That is not enjoyable to visit a  country when the government is watching you every step of the way.

 

The loophole ...is to have 2 phone..one for the government and the  other for your enjoyment.

 

Second of all most visitors to Thailand has not a local number.. so the government will depend on wifi to track individual. so how that will work.

 

or if you buy a sim card you buy just time and no internet.

 

it is a stupid scheme.

 

the net step is to force the tourists to register daily at the local police office on their whereabout.

 

haha to another stupid idea.

 

[tifino]

so ol' Joe Blo thinks ahead, and Installs the App prior to leaving ones home country... 

 

Gets to his airport with only minutes to spare, and heads into the airport security gates to board.

Now some airports around the world force you turn on ALL your electronic devices prior to boarding; to confirm the device is truely what it is, and not a bomb in a plastic shell.

  - so poor ol' Joe Blo is really down on his luck, as the silly phone won't fire up because he had just now flattened his battery trying to get the App Installed and working - and no time left to Charge it up enough to fire it up... 

 

Security confiscates the mobile aka suspected bomb device; and he is boogered now, for when he lands in Los... he has no phone to show...