| ▲ | dkdbejwi383 4 hours ago |
| This is how it works in Australia, which means it's a pain for tourists as you need to provide a passport for ID and get it activated, as opposed to just grabbing one at an airport kiosk and being ready to go on your way to the taxi or train like most other places. |
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| ▲ | MarkusWandel 43 minutes ago | parent | next [-] |
| Somewhat recently, tried to activate a SIM for a guest here in Canada, and while you could fill in anything you want for personal info, the only way to hook up (prepaid) billing was with a Canadian credit card number. Whoops. This was only for a month, so I put in mine and he reimbursed me in cash. Other carriers may still let you buy one-time payment cards for cash at retail; this one didn't. |
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| ▲ | willhslade 39 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I think this is where Airalo shines. I've used it while travelling and I think eSIMs, as annoying as they are, are the way. | | |
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| ▲ | naturalmovement 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > like most other places Much of EU requires ID for some time now. France is a bit strange, requires registration after 23 days or something. Germany, Italy, Spain it's basically impossible. The US is rather unique in that it does not require registration. |
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| ▲ | wan23 32 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | > Much of EU requires ID for some time now The US isn't in the EU | | | |
| ▲ | ivanmontillam 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Argentina doesn't also, you can just buy a SIM card off the newsstand. | |
| ▲ | joxdosba 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Huh? At least in Germany, Spain and France all of the smaller shops fill in fake info without even asking. EU countries have had these requirements for years and years and never moved to actually enforce them. | | |
| ▲ | naturalmovement 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I wasn't taking blatant fraud into account. I'm sure that's possible everywhere. I'd bet you can buy cigarettes without the tax stamps in the same shop too. Last I traveled the shop required a passport or uploading one to get an eSIM ahead of time. | | |
| ▲ | joxdosba 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Sure, but if you’re a tourist in e.g. Barcelona trying to get a prepaid SIM, odds are the shopkeeper will not ask you for your ID despite being required to. > Last I traveled the shop required a passport or uploading one to get an eSIM ahead of time. Sounds like you went to a carrier boutique and not one of the million independent shops. | | |
| ▲ | naturalmovement 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I would think most tourists would trust a carrier-branded store over Honest Jochen's Tobacco Emporium where you may or may not get a working SIM after paying cash. | | |
| ▲ | joxdosba 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Trust? Sure. They’re still more likely to buy their prepaid SIM from the shop that also sells bongs, they are on every corner after all. |
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| ▲ | lifestyleguru 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Not a good example. In Spain they notoriously demand id/passport and make photo or copy of it, they do it "for the police". | | |
| ▲ | joxdosba 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | That’s the legal requirement yes, I’ve never seen a shop insist on it. Most of them have autofill scripts for the KYC forms. | | |
| ▲ | naturalmovement 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Isn't the main topic of discussion here a legal requirement? If everyone ignores it then what's the fuss about? | | |
| ▲ | joxdosba 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | I’m just pointing out that in Europe the equivalent legal requirement is widely ignored, the same won’t necessarily repeat in the US, but it might. |
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| ▲ | LawnGnome 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Has this changed recently? I thought I heard about this several years ago, but the last 2-3 times I've visited (in the last couple of years) I've been able to pick up a prepaid SIM from Colesworth without any ID check. |
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| ▲ | ibejoeb an hour ago | parent [-] | | It has been like that for at least 8 years, and probably longer. There are still stalls at airports, but you must provide ID. | | |
| ▲ | LawnGnome an hour ago | parent [-] | | Interesting. Seems like this isn't very consistently enforced, then. | | |
| ▲ | ibejoeb an hour ago | parent [-] | | You may have bought the sim card but never activated it. It's not the device itself that is restricted, just using it. |
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| ▲ | dgellow 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I mean. It’s the same, you just have to show your passport and fill a form. It takes 1minute to get it done, you can do it on your way to the taxi if you want. Though e-sim are more practical now |
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| ▲ | mothballed 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I wonder what exactly are they hoping to achieve then? Anything that can be filled out in 1 minute in a taxi can be spoofed with an extra 30 seconds on the dark net buying dark IDs. So this does less than zero for crime, actually encourages more of it, while doing what exactly? It's madness. | | |
| ▲ | nemomarx 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Who says anything about crime? the goal is just so they can associate phone numbers with id cards in some fashion right? If they want to know what tourists are posting about their country that's good enough. | | |
| ▲ | voakbasda 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Like so many laws, nothing to do with stopping crime, but an obvious push to strip the populace of its rights. | | |
| ▲ | philistine 39 minutes ago | parent [-] | | You do not have the right to a phone number without providing ID. If you're an American, those unwritten rights that come from other firm rights written down in laws and constitutions can always be argued, they're always being whittled down. Rights for everyone are achieved through blood and toil, and if you truly want a right to anonymity and the digital tools necessary to achieve it, you will need blood and toil. Until then, we'll have to squeeze through fast developments that governments have yet to address. |
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| ▲ | mothballed 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | "Law enforcement" and national security is given as the verbatim headline justification when you reference Australia's Communication and Media Authority[] for rules on ID collection. Carriers and carriage service providers (CSPs) must help law enforcement and national security agencies.
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You must verify a customer's identity before you activate a prepaid mobile phone service. You can do this when the customer buys the service or when they try to activate it. The Determination on identity checks for prepaid mobiles lists the ways you can check a customer's identity.
Unfortunately I can't dig up the original debate from 1997 on the Telecommunications Act when the requirement appears to have been introduced. Would be shocked if it did not include similar language from the representatives shilling the requirement, though.[] https://www.acma.gov.au/support-law-enforcement-and-security... |
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| ▲ | NoMoreNicksLeft 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| What problem were they hoping to solve with that legislation? |
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| ▲ | stackskipton 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Most of time it's billed as law enforcement fighting tool. If people can't have anonymous cell phones, once you capture one criminal phone number, you can quickly look at who they call and since they can't be burners, you figure out the criminal network. Also, if you have restrictions of speech in the country, it's great way to de anonymize any speech government says is illegal. | |
| ▲ | logicchains 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The problem of citizens having anonymous internet connectivity. | | |
| ▲ | chopin 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That's an illusion. Two days of location data and you can pin down the owner pretty well. I thought about getting a SIM when Germany was about to introduce ID requirements. I quickly realized this being a moot point. | |
| ▲ | rusk 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The free anonymous internet was only ever a ruse to get people to use it so the CIA could spy on them. DARPA, folks, created a “free as in beer” global surveillance network and we all bought it. Not that we didn’t get anything in return but the idea that the worlds foremost military industrial complex just gave this to the world because they loved us is laughable. |
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| ▲ | redsocksfan45 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | [dead] |
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| ▲ | mc32 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Don’t eSIMs solve this problem for tourists? |
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| ▲ | naturalmovement 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Apple — and now Google — have "solved" this problem for the government by removing physical SIM slots in US iPhones. | | | |
| ▲ | ezfe an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | eSIM doesn't change local laws around cell phones - it's not magic. | | | |
| ▲ | izacus an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | In what way? Activating it still needs KYC. | |
| ▲ | vfclists 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Doesn't an eSIM link the SIM to the phone's IMEI which is usually logged somewhere? | | | |
| ▲ | nickphx 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Only if you do not require voice service. |
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