Passport Required To Buy Mobile Phones In the UK

David Gerard points out a Times Online story that says: "Everyone [in the UK] who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance. Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society. A compulsory national register for the owners of all 72m mobile phones in Britain would be part of a much bigger database to combat terrorism and crime. Whitehall officials have raised the idea of a register containing the names and addresses of everyone who buys a phone in recent talks with Vodafone and other telephone companies, insiders say." We've recently discussed other methods the UK government is using to keep track of people within its borders, such as ID cards for foreigners and comprehensive email surveillance.

It's always been required...

[wellard1981]

When signing up for a new mobile phone contract, you're pretty much asked for two forms of identifications, such as a driving license, passport, utility bills, etc. so this is nothing new. The new part is the national surveillance database. Thank god I'm moving out of this country.

Re:It's always been required...

[xaxa]

They've always wanted some form of ID for contract phones -- to do a credit check for a start.

The news is that it's been suggested pay-as-you-go phones should require ID to purchase. This might catch some stupid criminals, but it's not going to stop terrorists (who will steal a phone, use a foreign one, or buy one second hand).

Re:Through Europe and Thailand too

[Bert64]

You can buy anonymous prepaid phones over the counter using cash without having to provide any information about yourself.

Re:Ridiculous

[Anonymous Coward]

Difficult to buy sim cards in a lot of countries... In Japan you need a non-tourist visa if you're not a Japanese citizen as well as identification, and in Taiwan you need two kinds of identification. In China and Hong Kong you can buy them very easily. Laws on this differ very much.

Re:Ridiculous

[TheRaven64]

Want to have real fun? Get students unions to organise this - in freshers' week, everyone goes and gets a prepay card. They all put them in to a big bucket, and then get one out. For bonus points, get universities to swap them around. Then, when you want a SIM, just go and ask for one from your local university. Of course, as soon as you top up at a cash machine, or with a credit card, it can be tied to you...

Re:Cell phones and terrorists

[mustafap]

>They used anti-terror laws against Iceland, who are not at all terrorists No they didn't. The law covered terrorism *As well*, not exclusively. Check your facts next time you rant.

Re:Cell phones and terrorists

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1073990/Iceland-owes-world-116-000-man-woman-child-island.html [mailonsunday.co.uk]
e.g. "The freezing order was issued under the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act that was passed after the September 11 attacks the same year."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7662599.stm [bbc.co.uk]
e.g, "But Mr Haarde responded angrily to the move, saying it was "not very pleasant" to learn that anti-terror laws were being used against its companies and also blamed Britain for the collapse of Kaupthing."

Also here's some people forum discussion on the BBC refering to it as well...
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&forumID=5483&edition=1&ttl=20081019201232&#paginator [bbc.co.uk]

Re:Cell phones and terrorists

[Peter Greenwood]

>>They used anti-terror laws against Iceland, who are not at all terrorists.

>When? Do you have a cite on this?

It's well known. Google "iceland terror" and - among lots of others - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a9R6kEktPff0&refer=europe [bloomberg.com]

The government wound in some "independent" reviewer of anti-terror legislation to claim the bit of the Act they used wasn’t really anti-terror legislation. You can judge how independent he is by the fact that the same man stood up in Parliament a few days later to argue in favour of a (now defeated) proposal to allow the police to lock "terrorist suspects" up for 6 weeks at a stretch.

We used to sneer at all those tinpot Balkan dictatorships where you had to carry identity papers everywhere, the police could lock anyone up on a whim, and the only telephones you could buy were designed to allow Them to monitor you. And they used to make unbelievably weird claims about the evils of foreign governments. Then we went and elected a Labour government ...

Re:It's always been required...

[mollymoo]

The most powerful thing you can do is find people who agree with you and organize demonstrations.

Over a million people demonstrated in London to protest the Iraq war, with millions more in other demonstrations around the country, and the government ignored them. The major political parties, lobbyists and media have politics so tightly sewn up that revolution is increasingly looking like the only viable option to change the status quo.