The Hong Kong government announced on Friday (Jan. 29) a one-month public consultation on the real-name system for cell phone cards, which will require all users to provide identification documents when buying phone cards and Internet cards in Hong Kong, and businesses to provide business registration information.
The Hong Kong government said that many lawless elements use anonymous phone cards to engage in illegal activities, such as smuggling, prostitution, fraud, or “serious and violent crimes against public safety”, such as the production of remote explosive devices, the implementation of the real name system to help law enforcement agencies investigate crimes.
After public consultation, the government will submit the bill to the Legislative Council for consideration. Some analysts expect the bill to be passed before the end of the nearly unopposed legislative session in September, and the government expects the law to be implemented within a year after the real name system for all phone cards.
Mainland China also introduced a real-name phone system in 2010 on the grounds of fighting crime, which has been criticized by human rights groups as being aimed at increasing surveillance of the population.
The proposal raises concerns that Hong Kong will further tighten controls on civic activities.
Tens of millions of users to register
Currently, there are more than 20 million mobile phone cards in Hong Kong’s population of more than 7 million, which means that each person uses two to three cards. 56% of these users are using anonymous stored-value cards, which means that more than 10 million users are involved.
Under the new proposal, each licensed operator will be allowed to issue a maximum of three cards to each person, and it is estimated that there will be about 30 providers in Hong Kong, i.e. one person can have a maximum of about 90 cards. persons under 16 years of age will need to have their Parents or guardians confirm their registration for the phone card service.
All licensed telecommunications providers will be required to verify subscriber information, and problems with the information provided could result in the cancellation of smart phone card registration. telecommunications providers will be required to maintain and store subscriber information until 12 months after the phone card is de-registered.
The Hong Kong government said that law enforcement agencies can obtain subscriber personal information from telecommunications companies with a court warrant or in “urgent and emergency situations,” but not the content of call records.
Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau said at a press conference that there is no legislation requiring users to provide personal information, so it is difficult to combat crime.
Deputy Secretary for Security Au Chi-kwong explained that many lawless elements use anonymous phone cards to engage in various illegal activities, including smuggling, money laundering, fraud, prostitution and so on, of which the number of telephone fraud cases rose from 615 in 2018 to 1,108 in the first 11 months of last year, involving more than HK$563 million. He pointed out that 90% of the telephone fraud cases are with anonymous calling cards, increasing the difficulty of police investigations. Authorities said the international community, such as the Boston Marathon bombing, are using the phone to remotely control the terrorist activities of explosive devices, and cited the example of Hong Kong also found a year ago equipped with stored value cards for remote detonation of the bomb.
Fighting crime or monitoring the public?
In the previous year in the anti-revision movement, many demonstrators also have to buy anonymous phone cards for communication, to prevent the authorities to monitor. The outside world believes that this initiative is another move by the authorities to suppress demonstrations after the anti-amendment campaign.
The Democratic Party expressed “strong opposition” to the measures, that the government’s move “gives rise to suspicion that it is an attempt to monitor the public, especially their online activities”, coupled with the fact that law enforcement agencies can bypass the court to obtain information from telecommunications providers in case of emergency, this move “increased the risk of government abuse, the public’s privacy is not protected”.
The Hong Kong government pointed out that more than 150 countries and regions around the world have implemented the real-name system, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asian countries, even if the travel to buy a telephone stored-value card are required to fill in personal data. But the Democratic Party countered that the premise of the measures is that the regime should be generated by genuine universal suffrage and the trust of the public, in the case of the Hong Kong government is not trusted with other places as an analogy is not appropriate.
In Hong Kong, the general consultation period for important policies is three months, but this Time it is only condensed to one month, with a Lunar New Year holiday in the middle, the Democratic Party criticized that the government has no intention to truly consult the public. The legislation will be passed before the end of this year’s legislative session, which only has a majority of pro-establishment members.
Hong Kong Information Technology Federation Honorary President Fang Baoqiao told BBC Chinese that the general consultation period for the Telecommunications Ordinance is three to six months, but this consultation period is only one month, the industry seems to know that the government is catching up with the Legislative Council session and can not block the legislation.
He pointed out that many people will be for a variety of reasons, such as slow Internet access in individual places, or Internet data traffic is not enough, and tend to buy anonymous stored-value cards at low prices, compared to the registration scheme through telecommunications providers cheap and convenient, some cell phone application developers and other technology companies or other enterprises, may also use a large number of phone cards for scientific research or for colleagues to use.
He also questioned the reasonableness of the measures implemented by the Hong Kong authorities to combat crime, saying that many telephone fraud cases have nothing to do with these stored-value cards, but through computer programs pretending to call people with phone numbers. He believes that even if the authorities implement a real-name system, they should not limit each provider to three cards per month.
The problem is that people can choose to remain anonymous and feel that they have not broken the law, so they can remain anonymous. are separate in themselves, but now they are pulled together.”
“Security and surveillance is often a thin line, and in the end it depends on how high the public trust in the government, Taiwan can track users through the phone for anti-Epidemic purposes, but the government trust is low when these plans are launched, there will only be many conspiracy theories, and will be worried about whether it will be abused by law enforcement agencies.”
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