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China Demands Real Names From Mobile Phone Users
itwbennett writes "Starting this month, mobile carriers in China are requiring people who set up new mobile phone accounts to register with their real names as part of a new government measure to reduce anonymity among the country's 800 million mobile users. And within 3 years, the carriers must also register the real identities of all existing users, said China Telecom spokesman Xu Fei. The new policy comes as China has been pushing users to register with their real names online. In August, online gamers had to begin real-name registration under regulations that are meant to protect minors from Internet addiction and 'unhealthy' content."
I seem to recall AT&T demanding my social security number when I signed up.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
We have had to show photo id for as long as I can remember in Austraila when getting a new phone or sim card.
There really isn't that much seperating "us" and the "bad" guys these days except we are "us".
Or, they know better than to object publicly. Or the news agency made sure to print only comments favorable to the policy -- a practice not, alas, restricted to China.
India has been doing this for years. It's not possible to get a sim card without a valid 'proof' of your identity. It's another matter that if the terrorists really want to get a sim card, this requirement wont stop them - as it's very easy to get forged documents.
If all terrorism disappeared tomorrow never to reappear in any form whatsoever, governments everywhere would mourn its passing.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
I like how people always feel like they have to cite that India is the world's largest democracy, as if that amounts to a hill of beans. Does doing terribly stupid, ineffective, and seemingly oppressive things magically become OK just because some plurality of the people managed to strategically vote their party into a leading position? I think not. At least the Communist Party in China doesn't have to go through the indignity of lying about their intentions and motivations.
Now when they try to push the same legislation thru here in the USA all it will take is a quick comparison to COMMUNIST CHINA to get the politicians to vehemently oppose it....
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
Requiring it has been required in Norway for a while.
This is the direct result of people abusing the system by getting pre-paid phones and being cockbags with them. Now you cant get anonymous phones.
Personally I do not have an issue with this. While I love privacy I also think that at some point you need to have a certain amount of accountability. Being called up at 4 in the morning by some assbag pretending to be a customer at work.... not amusing.... not at all....
Then again, almost nobody opt out of the cellular phone registry here, so if I have a phone number or a name I can find the other. Their street address is also in this system.
Anyone can query it at sites like Gulesider.no ("yellowpages").
If you dont want people to know who you are, then dont call them :p
Under federal law (or more specifically, the law is tacit on the subject that) ANYONE may ask that you provide a social security number - and use it as an identification number for you - except the government. Now, that comes with some caveats. You are not required to give them your SSN, but in that case they are allowed to deny you their services based on your refusal.
Your state laws may have other provisions, but normally the alternative is that you must give them enough personal identification to uniquely identify you and your entire financial history...which is really the only reason not to give out your SSN. With the information they have, just about anyone can get your SSN for $10.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
False, they'll just define something else as terrorism.
A couple of months ago they tried this in Mexico. At first everyone was scared because they said they'd disconnect any line that wasn't registered.
At the end they didn't because too many people didn't register (in the order of millions) and about a month after the deadline the government simply desisted on the whole idea, calling it a "bad idea" and claiming that it was badly implemented.
Too bad the Chinese can't count on that happening, though.
Where Germany wins over a place like Saudi Arabia
wait, did you just say that? "hey, at least we're not as bad as the saudis".
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