Plan to track all foreigners - NOT JUST TOURISTS - by SIM cards moves forward

[webfact]

Plan to track all foreigners - NOT JUST TOURISTS - by SIM cards moves forward

By Sasiwan Mokkhasen, Staff Reporter

 

   

Photo: Sascha Kohlmann / Flickr

 

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.

 

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

 

-- Khaosod English 2016-08-09

[schweizer]

George Orwell would have loved this

[Gweiloman]

Never gonna happen. Just put the sim into a bin

[kannot]

theyll need  to know the nearest foreigner to lay the blame  on when  a Thai chops or shoots someone up.

Edited August 9, 2016 by kannot

[IMA_FARANG]

So what happens if you DON"T have a SIM card and don't use a cellphone?

[seajae]

now this is starting to get creepy,  tracking all non thais in Thailand through their phone is a joke, I rarely even turn mine on unless I want to use it. Have to wonder which idiot has suggested this, first they want us to fill in forms to tell them all our personal details and now this, have to think it is a certain thai that simply doesnt like farangs and wants them all gone, really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this sort of crap.

[manfredtillmann]

seems like a difficult concept to police. i currently use a sim card registered to my wife, so does her mother, and one of her sisters...

can't see police stop me to extract my sim and place it in a testing device to see who it is registered to.

[PatOngo]

2 minutes ago, IMA_FARANG said:

So what happens if you DON"T have a SIM card and don't use a cellphone?

 

See that guy in the dark glasses and black tee shirt................................!

[denkiblue555]

2 minutes ago, manfredtillmann said:

seems like a difficult concept to police. i currently use a sim card registered to my wife, so does her mother, and one of her sisters...

can't see police stop me to extract my sim and place it in a testing device to see who it is registered to.

 

Exactly.

 

I've heard stories of foreigners who need SIM cards but don't have ID on them to simply offer up a couple of hundred baht to any nearby local to have that number registered in their name. 

 

Still, may be more fun to mess with them and leave ur Orwellian SIM in a charged phone somewhere extremely random...lol

[Chapelroad]

I guess they could change the 90 day report to an every day report instead.

[Rob13]

A bit the like the mice hanging the bell on the cat

[Guest]

I'm quite curious about the technical solution. Why a special SIM card is needed or is it just a way to say, that these numbers will be actively triangulated without a warrant?

 

AFAIK there are no GPS enabled SIM cards yet. 

 

One possibility could be that these SIM are using specific APN for 'free' channel to broadcast phone's GPS information to the government and it would be mandatory for foreigners to have GPS enabled on their phones?

 

 

 

 

[jerojero]

Has been said before, but here's another really stupid idea. As if criminals will use their own name or use these exact Sims. Thailand, hub of retarded government ideas.

[Thian]

Don't dispose your old phone, it will get a function soon.

 

Why can't they track tourists by their phonenumber? They have all my numbers and i will always use my own simcard ONLY.

[dageurreotype]

15 minutes ago, schweizer said:

George Orwell would have loved this

 

VPNs weren't around then. Whatever 'they' come up with, there is an answer for. And always will be. Go nerds 

[Gweiloman]

How many tourists a year? 20 million? And they are going to try and track them all? 555555

[MJCM]

3 minutes ago, oilinki said:

I'm quite curious about the technical solution. Why a special SIM card is needed or is it just a way to say, that these numbers will be actively triangulated without a warrant?

 

AFAIK there are no GPS enabled SIM cards yet. 

 

One possibility could be that these SIM are using specific APN for 'free' channel to broadcast phone's GPS information to the government and it would be mandatory for foreigners to have GPS enabled on their phones?

 

 

What about this ? (Just guessing though)

 

They know what number the Sim Card has and who owns it. So every time the Phone connects to a Cell Phone Tower, the Computer of the provider transmits this info to whatever agency is tracking the Foreigners. However ONE major FLAW with this is that it's not very accurate.

[mtls2005]

"I'm quite curious about the technical solution. Why a special SIM card is needed or is it just a way to say, that these numbers will be actively triangulated without a warrant?"

 

My guess is that "they" don't want to alarm Thai citizens, so they're 'pretending' to introduce 'special' farang SIMs, which are they only ones which can be tracked, or so the populace will be led to believe.

 

Of course once this is implemented it will be hacked, and probably used for unintended purposes.

 

If you don't have a SIM one will be implanted for a nominal fee.

 

Originally this was more about recycling short-term SIMs owing to a number shortage, but it seems to have morphed into another sort of model.

Edited August 9, 2016 by mtls2005

[schweizer]

And straight from the new "Foreigner tracking HQ"

 

[LawrenceChee]

I will register mine to my kid ...he's 5 be fun to see him get busted in class for sleeping


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[AlphMichaels]

Ready, fire..., no need to aim.  Why do they always make off the cuff statements like this before ever reasoning them out?  They won't invest in the requisite functionality to manage it..., they can't manage the archaic systems already in place.  No way this will ever happen with any level of efficacy.

[Thian]

Will we still be allowed to use our own simcards and phone# while in Thailand?

 

I feel less welcome every month again....Why they don't trust me at all? Should i still start a company in Thailand?

[Inn Between]

This is just plain silly. It's typical jaw wagging and nothing more. It can't be implemented.

 

Are they going to have everybody who enters the country stop at the immigration desk and switch out their own (roaming) SIM for a the junta government's George Orwell Approved equivalent of a house arrest ankle monitor? Insane idea! And people who wear uniforms with lots of colorful and shiny things on them get paid for coming up with this stuff? Amazing!

Edited August 9, 2016 by Inn Between
typos

[cmsally]

Mobile phone "no have". Will I get arrested for that ?

[gchurch259]

I  do not care, if they want to know I am in the toilet at The Emporium, so be it!!

 

However, they should also do the Thai's. there are more criminal Thai's in country than Farang .

 

Maybe we all should leave for 60 days, they might miss the money !!

[strawpanda]

Some phones are still trackable even when turned off.

[PattayaAJF]

having worked in mobile telecommunications for more that 25 years i believe that triangulation of a specific SIM has been in use since the mid 90s .. in fact when i was working in Taiwan in 1998 we had a "tiger team" which regularly tracked the movements of some VIPs as part of their normal security arrangements .. so while the "tracking" aspect is well understood the difficulty may be in the "administration" of a large scale surveillance program .. just my humble thoughts .. 

[jspill]

'Plan moves forward' and 'to be reviewed next Tuesday' aren't quite the same thing. 

 

But sure, see you next Tuesday. 

[Crossy]

They are welcome to know where my phone is, or will there also be a requirement to actually have it with you?

 

[Lupatria]

34 minutes ago, IMA_FARANG said:

So what happens if you DON"T have a SIM card and don't use a cellphone?

You become a major suspect!!!