31–40 of 192 posts
Anon SIMs are already banned in many EU countries. It does not really work, some homeless people have thousands SIMs registered on their name. Also opposition in Germany says this might be discriminatory to refugees, since some of them have no documents.
It takes few minutes. This was done to fight identity theft. We don't have terrorism problem here because people who used to be regarded as terrorists(freedom fighters) by former unjust, apartheid government are now in power. If your SIM card is registered under your name, no-one else will be allowed to do a SIM swap on it. Only you can do such after providing proof of identification.
I feel it makes it easy for the law enforcement agencies to track down criminals if they used the SIM card to commit crime. Our government doesn't have history of invading privacy of their citizens, which makes it easier to trust them.
Is this so bad? I remember back in 2012 when I visited Berlin I had to register my SIM with my Belgian ID and address too. It only took a few minutes, it's not that much of a hassle. At the phone shop in Belgium where I work we were required to ask for a name and address too (but didn't check ID's for prepaid cards). I doubt this will solve much terrorism-wise though. You can't expect phone shops to verify the validi…
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I think it is sort of pointless. You have free wifis pretty much everywhere now. You don't really need a SIM card to communicate - even by voice - with other people. What will happen then? Starbuck will need to ask for your ID when you connect to their wifi? Russia is doing pretty much that with internet cafes. These control freaks need to get over the idea that they will achieve electronically a level of government…
Free Wifis are a lot more scarce in Germany though.
If I want to text, call (VOIP), email, chat, message you over wifi I don't.
Sounds very secure.
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I think these checks are probably already pretty common in other parts of the world. For at least the last three or four years in Australia there is a requirement to present Photo ID before buying a SIM card. I was quite surprised by this when I tried to buy a SIM at Sydney airport a few years ago. I have no idea what the government is doing with the data nor how it is protected. At the time, I just wanted a local SI…
> I think these checks are probably already pretty common in other parts of the world. Germany is a bit touchy when it comes to measures like this. After the experiences of the Nazi regime, even things like a census or introduction of a TIN met massive, years long resistance. One election gone wrong is all it takes and all those data will be used for genocide. Again.
I like to believe we are a bit further away from genocide than one election gone awry. 71 years passed, you know.
Anon SIMs are already banned in many EU countries. It does not really work, some homeless people have thousands SIMs registered on their name. Also opposition in Germany says this might be discriminatory to refugees, since some of them have no documents.
In which ones? I have manu prepaid sims from all over Europe and the only one with a name on is an old italian one when they required it. Which i think they no longer do.
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 t…
Now they know its coming, won't they just stick up on sims first?
This seems stupid to me.
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> I think these checks are probably already pretty common in other parts of the world. Germany is a bit touchy when it comes to measures like this. After the experiences of the Nazi regime, even things like a census or introduction of a TIN met massive, years long resistance. One election gone wrong is all it takes and all those data will be used for genocide. Again.
FYI: the TIN is a unique number associated to each person living in Germany. New born babies are getting a TIN faster than most of the congratulation cards... It is issued by the tax authorities and as a foreigner living in Germany you also get one.
In Portugal usually you always need to present you ID card and Tax ID together when some form of identification is required.
To the point that the actual ID cards (Ausweis) have the citizen ID, tax ID and social security ID all together.