Registering a new SIM card still requires taking a portrait photo

The main contents of the October 2018 State management meeting of the Ministry of Information and Communications were announced by the Ministry on the afternoon of November 6, including the issue of handling junk SIM cards.

The Ministry of Information and Communications said that to deal with the problem of junk SIMs, the Ministry has proposed solutions including: (1), new SIMs will have to be fully registered, including taking a photo; (2), network operators will not release cheap SIMs to the market, to avoid using SIMs instead of phone cards; and (3), research on technology to identify and authenticate photos with ID photos.

Under the direction of Minister Hung, network operators use technical solutions to detect pre-activated SIMs and thoroughly handle the situation of junk SIMs.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, these three solutions will significantly solve the problem of junk SIM cards, while waiting for the fundamental solution of building a citizen identification database.

With the above content, users will still have to take a portrait photo when registering for a new SIM.

Previously, at the National Assembly's question-and-answer session on the afternoon of October 30 and the morning of November 1, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that the root of the problem lies in having an accurate citizen database, and determining the relationship between the person registering to attach to the SIM and attaching to the national identity card.

Many countries now have a unique ID, photo, and fingerprints installed on their national ID cards. When a person comes to register, they insert their ID card into the machine and the fingerprint and photo appear. The SIM provider just needs to take a photo and compare it to the database. If the photo matches the photo on the ID card, then this is the person who owns the ID card. The SIM will be attached to the ID card and to the correct person.

The fundamental solution is that SIM users must be legitimate and register full information. The root is the citizen identification database with ID number, photo, fingerprints so that when registering, the correct person and SIM must be registered.

He also said that junk SIM is a concept that has not been defined in legal documents but is often used to refer to SIMs that do not have accurate information about the user and the user cannot be found. Junk SIMs exist in two forms: pre-activated SIMs that exist on distribution channels, can be purchased easily, and SIMs that have reached the user.

However, while there is no citizen identification database, the Ministry of Information and Communications has implemented a number of solutions to collect junk SIMs. He said that since the end of 2016, network operators have collected pre-activated junk SIMs. From July 2017 to now, 24 million SIMs have been collected, of which 50% belong to the largest network operator, Viettel; re-registering subscriber information, since July 2017, network operators have organized re-registration including taking photos, subscribers who do not have enough information and do not re-register will have their services cut off.

Also at the above meeting, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung directed that network operators use technical solutions to detect pre-activated SIMs and thoroughly handle the situation of junk SIMs, strictly implementing Decree 49 on blocking SIMs of subscribers with insufficient information.

While there is no citizen identification database, the Ministry of Information and Communications has implemented a number of solutions to collect junk SIMs.

In a piece of information related to the issue of taking portrait photos of subscribers, at the end of September, in the draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 25/2011/ND-CP, which the Ministry of Information and Communications conducted to solicit public opinions, there was mention of considering abolishing the regulation of taking photos of the owner of a mobile phone subscriber.

In the draft submission, the Ministry of Information and Communications said that immediately after the regulations on taking photos and adding photos were implemented by businesses, people and press agencies reacted that: taking photos is an infringement of people's privacy, can cause disclosure of private information and is unnecessary because they already have an identity card; for subscribers who already have accurate information (such as postpaid subscribers), the requirement to add photos is unnecessary, etc.

The Ministry said that after receiving these responses, it has sent a written report to the Prime Minister and proactively coordinated with telecommunications enterprises, press agencies, radio and television to discuss and clarify relevant regulations to create consensus among the people and society, and at the same time research and consider related issues.

The Ministry also believes that taking and adding photos really does not bring any meaning to management work and if we continue to require subscribers (especially subscribers who already have complete and accurate information such as post-paid subscribers) to add photos (businesses estimate that there are about 38 million subscribers of this type) we will continue to encounter reactions, so it is really necessary to consider and abolish this regulation.