Thailand approves plans to track tourists' phones

[Friendly Stranger]

They're making Thaksin look like an amateur.  This is the obligatory Thaksin dig quota for this thread.

 

Carry on.

[Keesters]

19 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

Wait until foreign diplomats decide they would rather not be tracked. Thailand will be told where it can stick their plans!

 

They will probably be given exemption=discrimination. All foreigners are bad guys except diplomats.

 

Plus no tracking for Thais as they are all good guys and NEVER run away from the police/law. 555.

 

[LPCustom69]

For years the over stayers and backpackers with a laptop (digital nomads) have been saying don't be concerned about us, because it doesn't affect you!

 

Some worried that their flaunting of the law would eventually affect all, and perhaps it will.

 

I would say that we will probably be looking at more major visa changes that will be more effective than this proposal. It's easy to guess what some of them will be.

[Winniedapu]

2 hours ago, louse1953 said:

Yes,a TVF bonanza.Repeat the same story every few days and get the bedwetters flocking to the keyboards in moral outrage and lining up at the borders to leave.55.

 

Well if you don't want to read comments by 'bedwetters', then perhaps you ought to join Teak Door instead. Lots of nubile young louts and sex-addicts there. Great fun.

 

Winnie

[indyuk]

This is about Thai Paranoia and Thai administrators that break the international rights laws. Rights laws exist to protect all of humankind from abuse  and exploitation. No one in Thailand  will dare to sign an electronic tagging law, aimed specifically at corralling international travellers. 

[bbbbooboo]

Hmmmm.....another cunning plan by the Thais to encourage and increase tourism?

[jacko45k]

The special SIM card should also incorporate medical insurance,  2 problems sorted.

 

[Basil B]

16 hours ago, crankshaft said:

 

I think the point is first the foreigners to ease the idea in of trackable  sim cards and then the general Thai population...

 

Win win for the government in the long run to be able to track Thais and big $$$ for the Telco's with a complete reissue of millions of tamper proof sim cards...

 

But it can be done now...

 

If you know the mobile number used or IMSI number of the handset.

[ukrules]

Just keep quiet about the 'sat phone' and all will be ok.

[Shroud]

What about existing sim-cards?

[mtls2005]

Tangentially related but AIS launched SIM Track & Trace for businesses to track mobile work-forces last year.

 

http://business.ais.co.th/th/product/smart-tracking

 

https://mobiletracktrace.ais.co.th/ximloc/Login.aspx

 

AIS launches SIM only tracking solution

Thailand’s largest telco AIS has announced a partnership with W-Locate and Morpho for SIM-based tracking for corporate customers.

Morpho has licensed technology from W-Locate for its SIM which use an applet to collect network data and then send it via SMS or USSD to a server that will do the processing based on actual surveys to determine location. This does not require any GPS or indeed any phone intelligence as all the applet does is only collect cell data while all the calculation is done in the cloud.

 

http://www.telecomasia.net/content/ais-launches-sim-only-tracking-solution

 

 

The ISOC (Army) has [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker] StingRays [/url], and they got antsy when the RTP was looking into them. They probably only use them to track "politicians"?

[Bullie]

On 10-8-2016 at 9:05 AM, DaveBKK said:

1) It's fairly trivial to track roaming phones on a network. The trick is matching a number to subscriber info. I'm sure they'll just they'll ask for a mobile number (if using roaming) on arrival cards and then they have you.

 

2) As for ditching mobile phones or using a blackmarket sim, they *could* make it illegal to not carry a phone + sim.... just like passport. Then the police have another reason to check foreigners and jam them up on the street.

 

3) As mentioned, I'm imagining part of the motivation here is to direct "foreigners" to "foreign" phone plans/sims that will probably be premium priced.

I make it a point to always provide as much desinformation as I possible can, including a wrong phonenumber, an untraceable emailaddress, ever-ganging income and occupations - except at hospitals etc.  You should try it, it's great sport.

[Loles]

Dumb or dumber ?

[sydneyboy]

On August 10, 2016 at 3:30 PM, JImH2O said:

Thaivisa is social media in the literal meaning, but it's not privacy invading like facebook, line, whatsapp etc.
I'm ok with forums because there's no requirement to provide any personal information. I always use a dedicated email alias for each forum registration, never to be used for something else and i usually connect through VPN.
I'm sure that statistics and email addresses are shared with the thaivisa affiliates, but since they know nothing about me i'm ok with that.

 

 

 

You really must have something to hide if you need aliases and go through a VPN. 

You think they can't find you if they really wanted to? 

Probably to scared to use your real name on Facebook too. 

 

[Harpov]

Are these guys dumb or what ? The technology is there already. The network tracks your phone already. When you move around the system tracks your handset as your transfer from one cell-site/tower to another. And when you make calls more information is provided for billing etc. And the ministry of communication doesn't know this lol :-)

[Heng]

20 hours ago, Basil B said:

 

But it can be done now...

 

If you know the mobile number used or IMSI number of the handset.

 

Yes, have seen/heard of the local police using it to catch more than a few folks during murder investigations.   However to scale up to use it as a political or anti-terrorism tool, you will need to attach IDs to the SIM/IMEIs beforehand.   And as mentioned, like all 'nets' it only has to be a rough tool, not a surgical one.   

[Mudcrab]

On 8/10/2016 at 1:41 PM, JImH2O said:

More info is needed, especially on the technical side. Like i said in another thread, i don't believe they can pull it off becaue they are simply too incompetent to achieve anything sophisticated as this.
But the day they force me to put their simcard in my phone so they can track me i will leave this country. I'm very keen on my privacy and don't use any social media etc., not even my big brother homecountry invades my privacy like Thailand is trying to do.
 

Oh dear!!

You could be right of course TVF can be very antisocial at times!!

[Mudcrab]

On 8/10/2016 at 4:30 PM, GAZZPA said:

Of course they have your passport details, they did as soon as you entered the country. The issue is that they can track you where ever you are using the sim card in your mobile phone. This to me is an invasion of privacy, if you dont care about it then I respect that but many people do care. 

 

I believe that a line should always be drawn on the issue of privacy and people should not allow for Governments to step over it no matter what. Of course Thailand is not my country so all I can do is vote with my feet, but the day they effectively strap a GSP tracker to me is when I leave for sure.

I hope you don't have any apps installed on your phone at present.

For instance LINE.

Go into your phone - settings - apps - LINE and see what it can do, and is doing now. It is quite surprising. Most other apps do the same thing.

You don't need a special sim to be location tracked.

[Mudcrab]

On 8/10/2016 at 6:19 PM, JayBird said:

Due to how cell phone networks work, this is already do-able:

 

SIM cards are now required to be registered with passport (rule change a year or so ago).

Cell Networks know where the SIM card/phone they are communicating with is (it tends to connect to the nearest tower for communication, so logs will show which one is being connected to).

 

Its not clear to me at least what they plan to do from a technical perspective:

1) Do they want to track a phone that is not using the mobile network (which does not connect to Cell towers) ?

2) Do they want to force the GPS tracking for more 'accurate' location?

 

The issue is less the government tracking your whearabouts.  The real issue is the new software they introduce to your phone to track your wearabouts.  This adds another vector of attack for people to hack into your phone.  It also of course allows unauthorized people to track your location for other non-desirable purposes.

 

 

As I already posted - check what your currently installed apps are doing. Many are tracking your position right now, as well as being able to readand/or modify all your data, contact lists, access and make phone calls without your knowledge etc etc etc

[Mudcrab]

On 8/10/2016 at 6:19 PM, JayBird said:

Due to how cell phone networks work, this is already do-able:

 

SIM cards are now required to be registered with passport (rule change a year or so ago).

Cell Networks know where the SIM card/phone they are communicating with is (it tends to connect to the nearest tower for communication, so logs will show which one is being connected to).

 

Its not clear to me at least what they plan to do from a technical perspective:

1) Do they want to track a phone that is not using the mobile network (which does not connect to Cell towers) ?

2) Do they want to force the GPS tracking for more 'accurate' location?

 

The issue is less the government tracking your whearabouts.  The real issue is the new software they introduce to your phone to track your wearabouts.  This adds another vector of attack for people to hack into your phone.  It also of course allows unauthorized people to track your location for other non-desirable purposes.

 

 

As I already posted - check what your currently installed apps are doing. Many are tracking your position right now, as well as being able to readand/or modify all your data, contact lists, access and make phone calls without your knowledge etc etc etc

[Mudcrab]

On 8/10/2016 at 7:19 PM, Felt 35 said:

Hmm.....what is it called again when a Government in which politicians regulate nearly every aspect of the public and private behavior of citizens

Farangland

[Mudcrab]

On 8/10/2016 at 8:27 PM, MadMac said:

It's just complete rubbish, firstly it can't technically be done, secondly there are other ways to avoid expensive roaming costs, such as FB, Line or Skype and Wifi is everywhere, thirdly damage has been done again and tourists go elsewhere. 

Look at what LINE can do

[bkkcanuck8]

2 hours ago, Mudcrab said:

As I already posted - check what your currently installed apps are doing. Many are tracking your position right now, as well as being able to readand/or modify all your data, contact lists, access and make phone calls without your knowledge etc etc etc

I can and do turn mine off.  If the government were to "allow" the tracking to be done with the installation of an app with similar settings - I would have no problem with it (I would turn it off too).  By it being an app and not a SIM it will make it difficult for the government to have a separate price schedule.  If you think they have figured out that foreigners can easily afford a 200 baht fee in addition to normal banking fees, I am sure they will figure out that if there is a special SIM that they can have a parallel foreign price schedule at around 10x or more of the Thai price schedule.  In fact I would not be surprised if a telco (who is being told they overcharged Thais - and must refund it) came up with the separate SIM scheme and brought it forward for consideration....  

[realenglish1]

On 8/10/2016 at 1:41 PM, JImH2O said:

More info is needed, especially on the technical side. Like i said in another thread, i don't believe they can pull it off becaue they are simply too incompetent to achieve anything sophisticated as this.
But the day they force me to put their simcard in my phone so they can track me i will leave this country. I'm very keen on my privacy and don't use any social media etc., not even my big brother homecountry invades my privacy like Thailand is trying to do.
 

I totally agree I have lived here for 15 years and if they force me to put a sim card tracker in my phone I will move and go to a more friendly country where I am welcomed and appreciated. The thais are going to kill the the goose that laid the golden egg. I am sure many ex pats will feel the same 

[realenglish1]

On 8/10/2016 at 1:41 PM, JImH2O said:

More info is needed, especially on the technical side. Like i said in another thread, i don't believe they can pull it off becaue they are simply too incompetent to achieve anything sophisticated as this.
But the day they force me to put their simcard in my phone so they can track me i will leave this country. I'm very keen on my privacy and don't use any social media etc., not even my big brother homecountry invades my privacy like Thailand is trying to do.
 

I totally agree I have lived here for 15 years and if they force me to put a sim card tracker in my phone I will move and go to a more friendly country where I am welcomed and appreciated. The thais are going to kill the the goose that laid the golden egg. I am sure many ex pats will feel the same 

[realenglish1]

On 8/10/2016 at 1:41 PM, JImH2O said:

More info is needed, especially on the technical side. Like i said in another thread, i don't believe they can pull it off becaue they are simply too incompetent to achieve anything sophisticated as this.
But the day they force me to put their simcard in my phone so they can track me i will leave this country. I'm very keen on my privacy and don't use any social media etc., not even my big brother homecountry invades my privacy like Thailand is trying to do.
 

I totally agree I have lived here for 15 years and if they force me to put a sim card tracker in my phone I will move and go to a more friendly country where I am welcomed and appreciated. The thais are going to kill the the goose that laid the golden egg. I am sure many ex pats will feel the same 

[Witblitz]

4 hours ago, realenglish1 said:

I totally agree I have lived here for 15 years and if they force me to put a sim card tracker in my phone I will move and go to a more friendly country where I am welcomed and appreciated. The thais are going to kill the the goose that laid the golden egg. I am sure many ex pats will feel the same 

 

if you have a sim card in your mobile telephone they can track you right now if they are so inclined, and the fact you have to register your sim, means they know who you are LOL

 

so when are you going to book your tickets then ?.....a few old Brits on state pensions are hardly golden geese...scrawny neck chooks maybe...golden geese...naah

 

[Don Mega]

2 minutes ago, Witblitz said:

 

if you have a sim card in your mobile telephone they can track you right now if they are so inclined, and the fact you have to register your sim, means they know who you are LOL

 

so when are you going to book your tickets then ?.....a few old Brits on state pensions are hardly golden geese...scrawny neck chooks maybe...golden geese...naah

 

my sim is registered to a fictitious Thai ID number, how do they know who iam ?

[JAG]

8 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

my sim is registered to a fictitious Thai ID number, how do they know who iam ?

Well don't shout about it, they may come looking...

[Scotwight]

27 minutes ago, JAG said:

Well don't shout about it, they may come looking...

Will Thai Visa tell them?