Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#1

Post by Bouncingsoul1 » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 9:47 AM UTC

Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]
pressetext.com

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#2

Post by Bouncingsoul1 » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 9:49 AM UTC

Couldn't find link in English. German government is planning to make it impossible to buy SIM cars anonymously.

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#3

Post by opless » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 9:55 AM UTC

Bouncingsoul1 wrote: post #2

Couldn't find link in English. German government is planning to make it impossible to buy SIM cars anonymously.

Link 404s

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#4

Post by unlinker » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 10:24 AM UTC

Been like that in Spain since the infamous 11-M. You know, religion of peace and all of that

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#5

Post by JazCE » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 10:34 AM UTC

This is terrible news. I wanted to get a sim card for Japan, but you can only get a pocket wifi device, which isn't so bad, but not as straightforward as swapping your sim out for a local sim as i do when in the states or malaysia.

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#6

Post by hamishforbes » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 10:39 AM UTC

JazCE wrote: post #5

This is terrible news. I wanted to get a sim card for Japan, but you can only get a pocket wifi device, which isn't so bad, but not as straightforward as swapping your sim out for a local sim as i do when in the states or malaysia.

That's not true. You just can't get a sim card with voice/SMS capability. Foreigners can get data only SIMs no problem, most airports will sell them (often out of a vending machine) e.g. https://t.iijmio.jp/en/

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#7

Post by shad0wca7 » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 10:48 AM UTC

In related news, Germany has announced requirements that all purchases of any lithium-ion related technologies be accompanied by an identifying arm-band to be worn at all times.

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#8

Post by Cyph0n » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 10:49 AM UTC

unlinker wrote: post #4

Been like that in Spain since the infamous 11-M. You know, religion of peace and all of that

Yeah, this is HN, not /r/worldnews mate. Keep the discussion respectful please.

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#9

Post by gedsic » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 10:54 AM UTC

According to the text, they want to achieve this by forcing vendors/providers to check the ID of the buyer, even for prepaid SIMs.

Re: Germany to ban anonymous SIM cards[German]

#10

Post by DominikPeters » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 10:54 AM UTC

Main points of the article: For purposes of terrorism prevention, the current German government wants to require sellers of SIM cards to check photo ID and ask for current address. If this happens, it will be (theoretically) impossible to own a German phone number that isn't connected to a name.

The address data is supposed to be put into a searchable database allowing security officials to search for names even if the exact spelling isn't known (which appears to be a problem with current systems). For privacy purposes, they plan to put a limit on the number of records displayed in response to a search query.