EDITORIAL
On Dec. 27, nine days
from now, all new SIM cards will be deactivated after the new SIM Card
registration law (Republic Act 11934) takes effect.
If one buys a new SIM Card on that date and thereafter, one must register his real name and present a government-issued ID. If SIM is already subscribed in telcos, you have 180 days to comply.
This means, government officials say, heydays of cybercriminals will get narrower as identity tracing will now be possible on their scam or spam text messages. But it also exposes our privacy at the mercy of the telcos and their databases.
The past months, we’ve been exposed to unnecessary but personally targeted spam messages with commercial purposes and already, they were suspected from illegal data sellers or vendors.
They’re still at it but this time, NTC joined by reminding us of their scams. Now, our big question, after Dec. 27, can we now trust Smart, Globe, Sun, DITO and all telcos and their centralized databases limited to just process, activate, or deactivate a SIM or subscription? Will our private information again leak to commercial users?
On reading the new law, the controversial provision requiring usage of real names in social media accounts have been removed. This, because social media content, mostly transmitted from abroad, are difficult for government to manage.
In the new law, anybody with aliases or usernames can be backtracked especially if a criminal offense is committed.
Penalties for TELCOS are now very stiff to as high as P1 million per offense on registration and P4 million per offense on breach of confidentiality.
For people who will register fictitious or fraudulent names or those spoofing another registered SIM, six years imprisonment and fines as high as P300,000 will hit you.
With Filipinos having multiple SIMS and usernames, their behavior over internet and text messaging must change for the better, officials say.
In Indonesia, 101 million prepaid SIM cards were reportedly blocked by government five months after their new SIM Law was approved in March 2018.
On the other hand, Malaysia, Hongkong and Taiwan are confronted with serious data privacy issues as SIM card users are monitored by government’s national security and value-added services of business interest groups.
Now, we will wait for further details on NTC’s IRR on RA 11934 in the coming weeks.
If one buys a new SIM Card on that date and thereafter, one must register his real name and present a government-issued ID. If SIM is already subscribed in telcos, you have 180 days to comply.
This means, government officials say, heydays of cybercriminals will get narrower as identity tracing will now be possible on their scam or spam text messages. But it also exposes our privacy at the mercy of the telcos and their databases.
The past months, we’ve been exposed to unnecessary but personally targeted spam messages with commercial purposes and already, they were suspected from illegal data sellers or vendors.
They’re still at it but this time, NTC joined by reminding us of their scams. Now, our big question, after Dec. 27, can we now trust Smart, Globe, Sun, DITO and all telcos and their centralized databases limited to just process, activate, or deactivate a SIM or subscription? Will our private information again leak to commercial users?
On reading the new law, the controversial provision requiring usage of real names in social media accounts have been removed. This, because social media content, mostly transmitted from abroad, are difficult for government to manage.
In the new law, anybody with aliases or usernames can be backtracked especially if a criminal offense is committed.
Penalties for TELCOS are now very stiff to as high as P1 million per offense on registration and P4 million per offense on breach of confidentiality.
For people who will register fictitious or fraudulent names or those spoofing another registered SIM, six years imprisonment and fines as high as P300,000 will hit you.
With Filipinos having multiple SIMS and usernames, their behavior over internet and text messaging must change for the better, officials say.
In Indonesia, 101 million prepaid SIM cards were reportedly blocked by government five months after their new SIM Law was approved in March 2018.
On the other hand, Malaysia, Hongkong and Taiwan are confronted with serious data privacy issues as SIM card users are monitored by government’s national security and value-added services of business interest groups.
Now, we will wait for further details on NTC’s IRR on RA 11934 in the coming weeks.
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