SIM card registration  

A report this week that several Filipinos have been receiving spam text messages from possible scammers has revived the proposal to regulate SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card ownership in the country. The anonymous text messages purportedly were offering jobs that promised high salaries.

Those who received the text messages suspected that their phone numbers might have been leaked. Those contact tracing forms where customers entered their personal data and phone numbers could have been the source of the spammers.

In another report, it was stated that contact details of shoppers from a large supermarket chain may have been compromised in a cyber attack on their membership database. The National Privacy Commission (NPC) said it is already evaluating the matter. The NPC is also looking into the protocols of banks, telecom companies, and e-commerce companies against smishing or phishing.

Amid these threats on informational privacy as well as attempted scams from anonymous individuals or syndicates, there are those who recommend the registration of all SIM cards of mobile phone to at least identify a SIM card with a real person.

Since as far back as the early 2000s when the rate of cellular phone ownership was rising in the country, I remember that the telecommunication companies objected to the said proposal saying it could affect the growth of the mobile phone market. But the early 2000s was the penetration stage of mobile technology. Now, there is widespread use of mobile phones in our country.

Personal privacy advocates may complain of invasion of privacy if we require store clerks to demand and record a SIM buyer’s sensitive personal information. Under our privacy laws, such personal information found in a driver’s license, for example, is not actually needed to provide prepaid service.

On the other hand, regulators might argue that registration of prepaid mobile phones is reasonable and appropriate in order to fight crime and minimize the proliferation of fake news and disinformation. In some jurisdictions, there is what they call a Test of Reasonable Appropriateness. Proponents of SIM registration assert that it is reasonable and appropriate to require a SIM card purchaser to show proof of his or her identity without necessarily further revealing sensitive personal information.

A key assumption in favor of SIM card registration is that it will deter customers from using their prepaid SIM for criminal and other wrongful activities. However, the problem is that this is still merely an assumption. For a regulation to be considered appropriate and reasonable, its imposition must be based on empirical data.

It remains a question, for instance, if requiring SIM card users to provide proof of identity would lessen the incidence of criminal and deviant behavior, or if it would lessen considerably in the first place the prevalence of anonymous phone users. Criminals will always find a way to hide their identity.

There is also the local context that must be considered if we are to regulate the ownership and use of phone SIM cards. In the Philippines, many poor people especially in the countryside do not have any form of written identification. That could effectively exclude a great number of people, especially the poor, from mobile phone ownership. But there can be other ways to verify the identity of a person in our close-knit society.

When I was in Taiwan in 2019 for my masteral studies, I bought a local SIM card which I used for unlimited internet data while I was there. Upon buying the card, the provider required me to present my Taiwan school ID or my Philippine passport as proof of my identity.

Taiwan is a well-developed country economically, politically, and socio-culturally. So my conclusion is that SIM registration has no adverse impact on the development of information and communication landscape of a country.

As an advocate for accountability of free speech, I lean in favor of requiring SIM card registration. Social media platforms only require a user to verify his identity using a mobile number. That means any anonymous prepaid card user can set up an account on social media using a fictitious name.

Trolls and other agents of disinformation in the internet conduct their campaign with impunity because they know they can remain anonymous. But once you put a face or identity behind a social media account, the behavior changes, especially when the account user knows that there will consequences for malicious and reckless behavior.

Certainly, it’s time to revisit the proposal on SIM card registration.