Buyers of SIM cards in Deep South will have their fingerprints stamped

 

 

As part of security step-up in the restive Deep South, people in the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla will be required to stamp their fingerprints when buying SIM cards for their mobile phones.

 

National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) secretary-general Takorn Tanthasit said Wednesday that the new security measure which was endorsed by security agencies in the Deep South would be introduced at the end of this month.

 

He said that the measure would also be applied to current mobile phone users – meaning that they would be required to re-register their phones and have their fingerprints stamped.

 

Full Story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/buyers-sim-cards-deep-south-will-fingerprints-stamped/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-5-3

Quote

Visitors of tourists visiting the restive region will have to notify the NBTC or mobile phone operators in advance if they want to use their mobile phones there otherwise their phones will not work.

Is this the same genius that came up with the idea of special SIM cards for foreigners to track their location?

Hard to find appropriate words...

Do "naive" or "incompetent" fit?

5 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Is this the same genius that came up with the idea of special SIM cards for foreigners to track their location?

Hard to find appropriate words...

Do "naive" or "incompetent" fit?

 

...hmmm I wonder if he is with the same group that was tracking bird flu and wanted to implant computer chips into fighting cocks.....

Judging by the rug he is wearing on his head, I hope he signed his name of the piece... might blow away.

One more for the Darwin winning award. So they buy Simcards in BKK maybe

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

people in the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla will be required to stamp their fingerprints when buying SIM cards for their mobile phones.

This requirement that doesn't apply to the whole of Thailand might actually motivate insurgent recruitment in the South. It could be perceived as an attack against the Muslim majority in the southern provinces.

It will be interesting to see how much the relevant Thai government authority will pay for the fingerprint scanners compared with the price on Amazon:

 

USD 19.95  Eikon Mini USB Fingerprint Reader for PC

USD 34.98  PQI Mini USB Fingerprint Reader for Windows 10 Hello

USD 64.00  Digital Persona U.are.u 4500 Reader

Fingerprint scanners are just part of the game.

But what about the underlying backend/infrastructure?

Where to store (correlate with the mobile database)?

How to search?

 

Am I wrong or is there STILL no fingerprinting at the immigration checkpoint?

And this is "in planning" since years!