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

[beano2274]

How long will the history of foreigners movements be kept? The server in question is gonna have to be huge.

[recycler]

It's a non issue discussion between people who have no idea what they are talking about nothing changes.

Every sim card can be traced at any time and they are already registered to your name unless you have it registered to another name.

[spidermike007]

I will definitely be changing this SIM to my wife's name. Not going to let any government track me, with my consent. Not a chance. Many can try. But, not going to cooperate if I can help it, thank you very much. 

[williamgeorgeallen]

1 hour ago, IMA_FARANG said:

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

well there are 96 active sim cards for every 100 people on the planet so there cant be many left without a cell phone.

[phycokiller]

they can track phones already so its difficult to figure this one out, but why are they so eager to track tourists?

[Puccini]

36 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

...

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.

 

I am thinking the same, judging from the last sentence in the news article to which the OP links:

 

Quote

Takorn said it would also help maximize the use of pre-paid phone numbers in the country. Currently numbers must go unused 90 days before they are “recycled,” but he proposed that anyone leaving the country could have their number revoked after 15 days, instead.

 

Just imagine what this would do to mobile banking where a one-time password (OTP) is sent via SMS for the login. A foreigner with a prepaid phone number could no longer use this procedure when he goes outside Thailand for more than 15 days. This would force foreigners with mobile banking to change to a postpaid package.

 

And think of the remaining credit of prepaid SIMs that would be amassed by the providers with the revocation of the SIMs after 15 days.

[JonnyF]

2 minutes ago, JImH2O said:

This is never going to happen, they can't even code and design a government website properly, let alone a sophisticated tracking mechanism. Even then, there are ways to cloak your device.
They are (currently) too incompetent to pull this off, but the junta's aspiration to complete crowd control is getting scary. It's trying hard to become a nanny state, believing that control and submission will lead to "peace".

 

I tend to agree with this, if they can't get the 90 day reporting working properly, this project is going to be well out of reach. Who would check all this data anyway?

 

In my opinion these anti-foreigner sentiments are an attempt to create unity amongst the Thai people. Nothing unites people like a common enemy and portraying 'outsiders' as the bad guys deflects away from all the internal conflicts/issues. Oldest trick in the book, won't work though.  

[schweizer]

Just now, phycokiller said:

they can track phones already so its difficult to figure this one out, but why are they so eager to track tourists?

 

Perhaps because if we were to believe the global press everyone who goes to Thailand either gets murdered, beaten or mugged, or all 3, sensationalizing disproportionate numbers gives people the impression that steps must be taken to deal with the "obvious pandemic"

 

[Wilsonandson]

Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said she had approached hotels over the idea of handing out wristbands to help identify tourists that get lost or into trouble.

"When tourists check-in to a hotel they will be given a wristband with a serial number that matches their I.D. and shows the contact details of the resort they are staying in so that if they're out partying late and, for example, get drunk or lost, they can be easily assisted," Kobkarn told Reuters.

"The next step would be some sort of electronic tracking device but this has not yet been discussed in detail."

http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/idINKCN0HP08T20140930?irpc=932

[anthony0339]

So is it moving forward or being reviewed on Tuesday. These Thai visa headlines really need to be check for accuracy.

[wlcart]

Is there any law forbiding a forigner to use a SIM registered to a Thai?  I had my 70 year old mother in law register my SIM.

[Pimay1]

1 hour ago, PattayaAJF said:

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 .. 

Unless there is a new procedure that I don't know about triangulation is quite easy when the cell sites are sixty or one hundred twenty degree sector sites. With omni sites, which most are nowadays triangulation is much more difficult unless the phone's signal channel is seen by two or more cell cites which is not the norm unless the phone is on the move or in the fringe coverage of one cell site. I think the best they could do is locate a phone somewhere within a ten mile radius but unable to pinpoint the phone. Of course if they use GPS then locating the phone is a slam dunk.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Pimay1

[alanferdi]

Playing big brother huh.... cannot track their own..... where is Taksin? slipped through top security, helped by top notches and is existing in the shadows of neighbouring countries......Control your own kind before you can think of controlling others. If this is implemented....then I guess all foreigners will leave this zoo.... Dog tag your chinese and your police...their the ones going into places where they should not be going to. Collecting Money.... blind to their own people breaking the law... no helmets, 3 people on a bike and drinking  and playing High Low.......why dont what is the end purpose of these SIMs..... Perverts!!!!

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Puccini]

47 minutes ago, AlphMichaels said:

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.

 

No doubt an extra fee would be collected from foreigners to finance this scheme.

[MyFriend You]

1 hour ago, denkiblue555 said:

 

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

I wanted to get 'legal' last year, so went to MBK and bought a one to call number, hey asked for my pspt, so I gave it to them, he looked at it, then proceeded to put the SIM card into the phone and said "My Pen Rai"  I put a thousand baht on it and its good until mid-2017..............they can track the number but there isn't a name  associated with it.  Guess we shall see.

[dick dasterdly]

3 minutes ago, Wilsonandson said:

http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/idINKCN0HP08T20140930?irpc=932

 

 

Yes, this sounds like another 'plan' that will never be implemented.

[Dmaxdan]

Well, at least they are not planning to microchip us like they do with dogs in the wesr.

[Inn Between]

3 minutes ago, anthony0339 said:

So is it moving forward or being reviewed on Tuesday. These Thai visa headlines really need to be check for accuracy.

 

LOL  These headlines are often written with a very intentional lack of accuracy. These guys are shamelessly sensationalistic to get "clicks" -- more clicks means more advertising appeal. 

[rtco]

I can remember having to register my sim card ages ago and provide my passport number ... is this something new?

[tomacht8]

Makes no sense, except for the Telephone Company which wants to sell new Sim cards.
If this nonsense continues with ill-considered ideas,  then Thailand does not need to complain about the decline of tourists from Europe, America and Australia. The awareness of privacy data is a sensitive issue there. 
 

 

[Baerboxer]

53 minutes ago, AlphMichaels said:

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.

 

Basically a muppet goes off to a conference and in the networking chit chat hears something. The muppet has no idea how it works, what it's all about and doesn't ask any questions for fear of losing face by showing ignorance. But, wanting to impress the bosses and powers that be with the latest on the ball bright idea, the muppet spouts off pretending to know what talking about - without any idea of reality or consequences.

 

Seems a common occurrence.

[Tompa]

3 minutes ago, Puccini said:

 

No doubt an extra fee would be collected from foreigners to finance this scheme.

Spot on! They would definitely make us pay for it. Would be interesting to see who's behind the company supplying the cards/technology

[baboon]

1 hour ago, seajae said:

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.

Yeaah... Err, you know how the country is run by a military junta who are cracking down on any real or imagined dissent, left, right and centre?  And headlines such as these surprise you?

[sjaak327]

The devil is in the details, now they claim to be wanting to track all foreigners, not just tourists. Of course, it seems only those who purchase a sim from the moment this plan is reality.

[Alive]

This is just the beginning I am sure well so long as the people in power remain. Expect more. They might even ask websites of that want access to Thailand to provide the details of their members. What do you expect from this type of government. If western governments were run by their military, they would demand the same. The whole world is sliding into a world of not only more population but less privacy.

[Merylhighground]

Isn't it funny....The hoops for the 'good guys' are going to get higher and hotter week in, week out until there's no one left, apart from those with whatever skills or finances, deemed by whatever half-witted monkeys are in charge, to be of possible benefit to the country....

There is Heavy Weather for foreigners ahead my hearties....hold on tight to 'tee rak' while you can because you may not have much chance apart from your annual permitted  two weeks 'holiday/savings spending period'. 

The warning signs have been in the air for the last decade since Thaksin the pickpocket's imbecile regime began shifting the visa/residency goalposts every week, before you start blaming Juntas etc.

Now might be a good time for looking into getting your Thai loved ones back to your country of origin if you want to see them on a regular basis....

[12DrinkMore]

You are all reading way too much into this.

 

It is simply a justification to syphon off public money into private hands.

 

- The guy with a bunch of low spec chinese computers to handle all the data

 

- The guy who will get the contract to supply 30,000,000 SIMS every year

 

- A few other middle men, front runners and back end men with fingers in the public money pie.

 

It will start up with a big fanfare and then just disappear, like every other ridiculous and unenforceable idea.

 

Mobile phone numbers are nowadays tied to so many different apps, companies and contacts. It would be hugely inconvenient to have to change them.

 

They could force people to buy the SIM, they cannot force people to use them.

[Mango Bob]

I will buy a cheap phone put that sims in it and keep it turn on with no money.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Mango Bob

[yellowboat]

6 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

 

 

Yes, this sounds like another 'plan' that will never be implemented.

Maybe, but they implemented single gateway and SIM registration.  Though this "plan" is far fetched.   SIM registration was at the urging of the US government  

 

Say if you have a non GPS phone, are they really going to triangulate your position ?

 

There are small groups of people who are not using their phones at all to communicate with friends.  Sadly, it seems to be a growing business post Snowden .

[sahibji]

1 hour ago, IMA_FARANG said:

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

 

maybe a phone will be provided to you for the duration of your stay. Ha ha