Expats could be exempt from SIM card tracking

[silent]

3 hours ago, Gecko123 said:

I am definitely not in favor of this being done on a mandatory basis for either expats or tourists. It's just way too intrusive into personal privacy.

 

However, on a voluntary basis, I can envision some scenarios where a tracking device on a cell phone could be beneficial, i.e., someone who was at risk for dementia or other health problems which might incapacitate them, someone concerned that their life safety, or someone who lived or traveled in remote areas. 

 

 

 

You just have to look at these things the same as little children exploring the world around them , trying out new toys or playing with Ken and Barbie dolls. For example I use to go for a drive after dinner every night - my vice instead of drinking.

Unfortunately with the current push against drinking and driving and the new handheld "breath machine cell phone app" toys the boys have a spot check set up nearly every night. I've got so sick and tired of a different one every night stopping me to stick his head through the car window, say you drinky whiskey or how much you drinky beer then making me blow in the thing anyway that I've refused to wash my car no matter how muddy it gets. It's actually worked the last couple of times and they wave me on.

 

However if after the rain washes it should they start again, considering the word exchange with one  the last time when I raised my voice and said can youy read my lips I DO NOT DRINK, I think it's time I give up driving to amuse myself and take up drinking before I get arrested for my anti- authoratative attitude.

 

Children must play.

[stephenterry]

Anyone intending to commit a crime wouldn't have a tracker SIM card fitted. Or, even if 'unintentional', I'm sure the perp would get rid of the SIM.  It's a total waste of time even considering the scheme.

[Suradit69]

2 hours ago, yellowboat said:

The only thing the current and future Military controlled governments worries about is foreign opinion.  It is something that they cannot control, but it controls them. 

 

They are really just shameless children; Thai government and the elites. 

" They are really just shameless children "

Considering all the childish comments made on Thai Visa, that's definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black, especially considering some of the ridiculous notions put forward by western politicians and a certain US presidential candidate who wants to build a 2000 mile long wall along the Mexican border.

 

[scorecard]

16 minutes ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

If you look who gave the 1 Billion needed for the whistleblowers that led to the coup, you might be correct about the higher tariff for foreigners, its maybe pay back time. But then again they can do this without a special sim. When you buy and or register a sim in a foreigners name they can activate it with a higher tariff. I think the crux of the matter was as said yestersay in Bkk Post, it was a matter of national security.  The ultra nationalist thats in control mistrust foreigners and see potential threats in their own shadows.

 

Could be true.

 

IMHO it could also relate to terrorism, and therefore trying to get a better grip on the whereabouts of all foreigners. But the obvious downside is that serious trained terrorists would make sure they do something like:

 

- Turn the phone off at a nondescript location that doesn't have any meaning as to their terrorism related activities.

 

- Destroy the phone into very small pieces, wrap each piece any put in numerous rubbish bins at markets etc.

 

- Ditch the phone in a place not connected to their activities and where there is zero chance it will ever be found.

 

... 

[Tchooptip]

I do not give a #{*~ if any one or any country is tracking me, I could not care less! 

It seems we are not many ? 

[jlwilliamsjr18]

All I say...is...Another One Bites the Dust.

 

[kannot]

2 hours ago, canopy said:

Thailand is not a rich country. It is not clear why it is so important to create a bureaucracy that spends money trying to "help" foreigners by shackling them with something they don't want and does nothing for the Thai people that are in more desperate need of their money spent in constructive ways.

 

Thai's misusing technology is a major fault seen everywhere; just add this one in there with every village loud speaker system and all the needless poisoning done everywhere to name a few.

 

ranked 27th in the world  http://statisticstimes.com/economy/countries-by-projected-gdp.php

[Gary A]

31 minutes ago, Usernames said:

 

Snarky but true. Whatever the Thai government decides, you can choose to conform, leave, or find yourself in potential trouble. No use complaining.  Those are your options.  Choose one.

 

You may not like many of the silly laws but Thailand is still better than most of the nanny countries we come from. True or not? Most of the silly laws are very selectively enforced to fit the situation.

[Gary A]

31 minutes ago, Suradit69 said:

" They are really just shameless children "

Considering all the childish comments made on Thai Visa, that's definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black, especially considering some of the ridiculous notions put forward by western politicians and a certain US presidential candidate who wants to build a 2000 mile long wall along the Mexican border.

 

 

The Great Wall of China was a bit bigger project than Trump's wall. It worked, didn't it?

[williamgeorgeallen]

well it was going to be about tracking overstayers and foreign criminals in thailand. really i think it is about making foreigners look like we are causing thailand a lot of problems. dont see why the army would back track. they have complete power for now and international opinion is not thailands father.

[AlQaholic]

I am saying it again, tracking foreigners with SIM is equating them with convicts tracked by wrist or ankle GPS bands.

[Friendly Stranger]

Ok, so let's go through this:

 

Consider this knee jerk scheme - check.

Approve it - check.

Consider exemptions - check.

Re-consider, since you're once again a laughing stock - check.

This is a new one:  Have ppl vote on it. 

 

Which will be followed by a retraction.

 

Rinse and repeat.

 

Edited August 11, 2016 by Friendly Stranger

[Usernames]

26 minutes ago, Gary A said:

 

You may not like many of the silly laws but Thailand is still better than most of the nanny countries we come from. True or not? Most of the silly laws are very selectively enforced to fit the situation.

 

 

Try and read what I wrote.  Your reply has nothing to do with what I posted.  I did not say ANYTHING about this law or any other law being "silly."  You are simply lying when you say that.

[tomacht8]

2 hours ago, arithai12 said:

I don't understand the fuss. Isn't this exactly what the NSA has been doing for years already in the US, or what Apple and Google and Facebook already do?

 

Exactly, that many people not want.
The argument, because the United States does it, then it is ok, is simply stupid.
These data krakes must be boycotted.

More security, that's a lie.
I do not want to be my private e mail is read and stored by strangers, my telephone calls, my personal contacts, my purchases, my reading habits, my surfing habits, my bank accounts, my social contacts, my travel habits, my business papers, etc.

Nice to see how the United States with its tracking technology, hack worldwide into the private telephones from politicians, monitors the servers of companies and directs their drone bombs.

For example, if you have a serious disease, you must not be surprised if the health insurance company increase your fees or throws you out from the insurance.

Resist the beginnings of the total surveillance state.

[Mobi]

I don't unusually comment on these type of threads but this really is a load of tosh, as there are so many ways that foreigners/tourists with ill-intent can circumnavigate this plan if they have a mind to.

 

To start with, I'm quite sure that millions of tourists don’t even bother to buy local sims when they come to Thailand.

 

My own daughter who is here at the moment with her family is a case in point. She can access my wifi from her UK phone when at my home, and also in many places when she goes out somewhere, and she uses Line or WhatsApp to keep in contact. She can also roam from her UK sim in an emergency, so she hasn't bothered to mess with a Thai sim.

 

Secondly, it would be so easy to get a Thai (wife, GF, friend etc) to buy a sim for a foreigner. Anyone with ill intent is bound to have contacts in Thailand. So the foreigner can move around Thailand with impunity. OK, it can be traced to the Thai if it is used to set off a bomb or whatever, but what foreigner is stupid enough to use a registered sim anyway? If you are a terrorist or criminal it should be very easy to get hold of unregistered or stolen sims.

 

So they will spend a load of money to set up a tourist-tracking system that will produce few results, except maybe the odd drunk misbehaving or a hit and run. The master criminals (if there are any) will have no problems evading their nefarious sim tracking net.

 

I wonder if there is an angle here to make a bit of money on the side. There usually is.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Mobi
para spacing

[worgeordie]

They have already backtracked on having to show your

passport or ID when posting a letter or parcel,overseas,

 

Someone in the Government keeps coming up with ideas

to track so called criminals (which I thought most were 

under protection of the Police)and Terrorists,so once again

the majority are disadvantaged by the minority,they roll the

ideas out before carefully thinking everything out first and

have to do a u-turn.

regards worgeordie

[Sydebolle]

Locating a phone was ALWAYS possible. In the earlier days mobile phone calls would be charged by distance. In on incident I drove from Udonthani to Korat and was on the phone for more than two hours.
When the bill came I was charged initially B18 per minute from Udon, it then went down to B15 per minute from Khon Kaen and ultimately B12 from Nakorn Ratchasima. Taking the call duration and the length of the individual cell readings I figured out, that I was driving 110 km/H. 

Clear proof in 1989 that locating a phone was possible in the analog days; what do you think a mobile phone can tell those interested today? 

Last not least, it proves only, where your phone is and not where you were/are 8-) 

[MaiDong]

3 hours ago, koolkarl said:

What about tracking all the muslims in Thailand?  

Far more of a threat than a 70 year old foreigner drinking  a beer in a bar.

 

Track the 'politicians'.

[Deepinthailand]

So there you go you can all pull your toys back in your prams now. Lick your dummies clean and pop back of to bye bye's

[WhizBang]

Takorn Tantasith, secretary general of the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission said the plan approved Tuesday requiring foreigners use SIM cards which report their locations would not move forward without input from the public – including foreign residents.

 

IF that is true, then might as well bin the idea now, as I think the expat community is overwhelmingly AGAINST it.
 

[useronthenet]

4 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

 

All English media content in Thailand is censored by default. 

[shamrock09]

3 hours ago, soalbundy said:

There are a lot in the South i hear

Love the irony!

 

[Liquorice]

If the intent is to increase the revenue from the millions of visiting tourist every year, and they did implement this ludicrous idea, it would surely  kill the Goose that lays the Golden Egg.

[american12bthai]

LOOP HOLE ALERT!   

 

i dont need permission to record your IP or MAC.  there are no law against that. but if i did have that information I wouldnt need to track your gps.  or whatever it is your doing.  i would just spoof a phone that duplicates the data you are receiving/sending.  

 

FUN.   

 

so, politicians of thailand.............  someone ... somewhere ... knows everything about you and all the shitty things you do.   cause all your information is stored into the FIRST device you connect to to go online.   Thats the device i would target. If i know about this sort of stuff... which i dont,  obviously. 

[lizardofoz]

I have a company phone and there is no name allocated against it so they would not know if a Thai is using it or a Farang. If I were a tourist and did not like my privacy interfered with I would carry two phones. One with my foreign SIM card in it and a second cheap phone with the Thai required card in it. Leave the Thai phone at the hotel plugged in and on.

 

There is also the choice not to bring a phone on holidays and just relay on internet for all communications and conversations - Skype etc.

 

People have become to reliant on phones - really not needed that much when travelling.

 

Sorry battery gone flat so you do not know where I am.

Sorry flying so had to turn it off.

Sorry did not bring a phone with me this time.

Lots of ways to keep big brother away.

 

The system will only work for honest people - crooks will always cheat so whats the point?

[HappyinNE]

Going into the Central Shopping Mall in Udon Thani there is a sign offering to tourists a SIM with some amount of time and also I believe 4G downloading.  Just go up to the information desk and ask for one.  I am not interested so did not check if they were charging but the sign appeared to say it was free.

[Khon Kaen Dave]

That our Embassies would present the  case for us?

I was under the impression that the UK/ambassador was as weak as piss on matters of this kind.

[Lupatria]

With his constantly changing announcements Mr. Takorn Tantasith gave the impression he's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. But that's what I thought already when I saw his picture in the first public statement wearing this Kindergarten shirt.

[ddraig92]

Maybe it's a new super organised system to avoid 90 days reporting for the expat community . No need to report when they know where you are right ? Perhaps it's a new type of ID card you can directly pay for annual visas and extras with it without moving from the bar stool 

[Falcon]

7 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

Personally I would never take part in any public discussion on this or any other govt issue so perhaps we have to hope our respective embassies will present the case for us.

 

Funny thing to say as you have just taken part in a public discussion on this topic by putting your comments on a public forum.