Passports Required To Buy PAYG Mobile Phones Comments

can they trace this comment...?

Lol...Looks like ebay will be busy with phone sales, as will the unlocking companies! The value of second hand phones will increase, does the government really think people will not find ways around this. They are not interested in stopping terrorism it is just to bring them in-line with how it is in most other E.U countries.

Wonder how long it will be before we're all chipped and tracked in the name of 'terrorism' or 'for the children'. The 'terrorists' have won. The freedoms and liberties they have been trying to destroy have been removed by our own government.

So if there's a terrorist who has a mobile number that's similar to mine, and an operator gets one digit wrong, what's to stop a team of armed undercover officers tracking me down and shooting me half a dozen times in the head before I even have a chance to say 'what the deuce?'. This makes me feel less safe than before. If you were guarenteed a trial before execution in this country, I don't think I'd mind so much. @Gordon: Maybe the hidden agenda is to discourage people from using their mobile phones in the first plce and running up huge bills. I'm sure that's partly to blame for the state of the economy!

If this happens, how will online shops such as play or amazon be able to process photo id online then?
Or are they simply going to stop selling PAYG phones...methinks no!

I traded my right to privacy when I signed up to an 18 month contract so can't really complain. PAYG customer wanting to stay anonymous would need to top-up in cash only (probably while wearing a full face mask), keep the phone switched off, never stay in the same location for more than 20 minutes and use a voice changer whenever they made calls. Privacy, encryption and security are worth very little, the only thing we have is trust...but how much trust?

Serious criminals will just register using an alias. Passports and driving licenses are relatively easy to procure. However, mobile phone records still provide the police with a great deal of circumstantial (you were there) type evidence when prosecuting. Of course, it helps them if you've kept the same SIM and PAYG subscriber modules are easy to ditch. Funny how the felonious forget this and get caught out.

@basicasic That isn't far off but by the way of ID cards instead. AT the end of the article it mentions twitter, this is consented invasion of privacy of sorts unlike the move to require passports for PAYG phones which is forced apon us. This along with the wanted change in laws for VOIP providers is starting to lead the government down a slippery slope.

I can not see a problem, I have been carrying a an ID card for more than 30 years and have had to provide it to purchase a PAYG phone in the last few years. I also show my ID to use any of my bank cards.
I don't have a problem with carrying or showing ID, it may not be fullproof but it's a start, and before anyone thinks dfferent I am a UK citizen.

Consistent with so many measures over the years, the attitude is 'we can't allow ten million of you to do some things, or leave them unregulated, because one among you may abuse the privelidge we allow'.
I can remember the prevention of CB Radio (FM) by the Home Office on the grounds that it might be used for criminal activity.

But the problem is that whoever you vote for, goverment gets in.

I think they should ask for passports in the food shops - you can circumvent the mobile phone shops but you GOTTA eat sometime :D:D:D:D

In countries like India this was launched nearly 4 or 5 years ago but the bombs go like fire crackers every month in atleast one major city that too triggered most of the times by mobiles. Sad but these things do not stop terrrorism. They will speed up police investigation in a reactive mode.