Good news, everyone. That Mexican law that requires cellphone users to be fingerprinted and registered into a national database went into effect [Spanish] the other day. It’s an effort to crack down on violent crime, since, as well all know, cellphones are notorious criminals and won’t think twice about dropping an Acme anvil onto your head.
I won’t even pretend to understand the ins and outs of the current Mexican situation, something to do with Americans’ insatiable appetite for the likes of marijuana and cocaine, and Mexican drug lords’ uncanny ability to supply those drugs at whatever the cost. It’s pretty bleak, yes.
Right, so moving forward, anyone who wants a cellphone in Mexico will have to provide official photo ID, an address and step up to the fingerprinting booth. If you already have a cellphone you’ll have to retroactively provide all that information.
Carriers are required to advertise the new law, so that no one can say, “But I didn’t know anything about it.”
Here’s a fun stat: there’s 70 million cellphones users in Mexico, and some 90 percent of them use a pre-paid phone.
via Slashdot
Don’t even get me started… These are no good news to anyone, I live in Mexico City and this law is a complete non-sense. It is like trying to kill ants with a shutgun. By the way, I am not registering my info (phone), I rather prefer not to have one (mobile phone) than registering it. Other issue is that mobile Phones (GSM and CDMA) are worldwide services, so what happens to Roaming? In no time there will be a black market of stolen SIMs from other countries, and those SIMs will be used by criminals and regular people. The worst part is that criminals will steal anybody’s mobile phone and the ilegal stuff, and you will have to report your stolen mobile phone to authorities (and burocracy in my country could be even painful or expensive if you know what I mean).
Other thing is money, yes, money, what will Carriers do if anyone wants to register their phones? Will they really cancel al contracts and phone lines? Will they really loose so much money just for helping the government (or de President, Felipe Calderon, whom signed this particular law)? Lets be real, Carlos Slim, owner of TELMEX and TELCEL (the biggest mobiel carrier in Mexico) is one of the richest guys in the world, he controls about 30% of the economy of México (if not even more), don’t you think that he would have the last word about this law? I hope people just don’t comply with this law so the economical pressure put on Carlos Slim make this nonsense stop. (Research about RENAVE, it was a similar law for creating a database for cars, it didn’t work and disappeared).
And if you think this matters are of no international importance, you may be wrong, just wait to see how many turists will be robbed, just because they have an unregistered mobile phone. And what about people from other countries that have plans of living in Mexico, what kind of paper work will they have to suffer in order to have a mobile phone with a local number (because roaming is way to expensive for the long run)?
Review: no good news for anyone, big brother laws suck all the way, from Mexico to China.
best wishes from Mexico City.
ooops, some important errors in my previous comment. In first paragraph, I mean that criminals will steal phones and DO ilegal stuff (not seatl phones and the ilegal stuff).
In second paragraph, first line, I meant: “…what will Carriers do if NOBODY wants to register their phones”
I am very sorry for my English, I’m not a native speaker and I am pissed off by this new law.
This should very smoothly, as I expect all 70 million cell phone users to instanly que up in an orderly fashion and the Mexican government officials to speedily take that information and file it with nary a glitch nor unintended consequence. It should all be done by next Tuesday.
“These are no good news to anyone”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Hubert_Farnsworth#Characterizations