Legislation moves to capture identities of all cellphone users
By Shaun Benton - BuaNews
Cape Town - Under legislation currently being discussed in parliament, a person who sells or provides a cellphone or a SIM card to someone other than a family member will be obliged to immediately notify a telecommunication service provider of the transaction.
The telecommunication service provider, or cellphone network, would then have to deactivate the SIM card until it has recorded and stored the identification details of the recipient of the cellphone or SIM card.
This is according to amendments being made to the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act, more commonly known as RICA, which was promulgated earlier.
The point of the amendment bill is to tighten up RICA and ensure that, ultimately, all users of cellphones can be identified.
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development is currently working through the amendments, which are aimed largely at getting service providers to speed up the recording, storing and verification of the identities of their network customers.
The RICA, which modernises earlier legislation to cater to the development of modern communications technologies including cellular telephones, is primarily intended to enable law-enforcement agencies to, with a warrant granted by a judge, intercept certain communications in their fight against crime.
These interceptions would be for mobile cellular operators, Internet service providers or fixed-line providers, other kinds of communications from other telecommunications service providers as well as ordinary oral conversation by means of bugging, for example, according to Sarel Robbertse, a senior state law adviser with the Department of Justice.
The RICA replaces the Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Act of 1992, which authorised a judge to issue a warrant to law enforcement authorities to intercept traditional forms of communications.
The current act states that telecommunications service providers must keep records of their customers, so that a database is established of customers on their networks.
However, prepaid cellular phones are currently "identityless", and South Africa is currently catching up with several other countries as it attempts to capture the identification of prepaid cellphone users, and the amendments seek to ensure that the recording of this data is a less "cumbersome" process, according to Mr Robbertse.
The amendments currently being discussed seek to tighten up the provisions of the Act, to ensure that all cellphone users' identities are recorded and stored.
The current intention is to give telecommunications service providers around 12 months to comply with the legislation and ensure that registration of customer information is available.
In terms of the proposed section under the RICA bill, if a person disposes of a cellular phone to another person that is not a family member, a certain procedure must be followed.
The proposed legislation caters to the registration of new cellphones - under the proposed section 40 of the bill - as well as the registration of "historical owners" of cellphones that are already in circulation.
The ultimate intention of the tightened legislation is to have a database of the names and identification numbers, and addresses, of cellphone service customers that match the mobile subscriber integrated digital network (MSISDN) numbers of activated SIM cards, and/or the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) numbers of cellular phones being used.
Similar legislation is in the process of being passed, or has already been passed, in an increasing number of countries as authorities around the world move to tighten up avenues of communications in an attempt to clamp down on criminal activity
Cape Town - Under legislation currently being discussed in parliament, a person who sells or provides a cellphone or a SIM card to someone other than a family member will be obliged to immediately notify a telecommunication service provider of the transaction.
The telecommunication service provider, or cellphone network, would then have to deactivate the SIM card until it has recorded and stored the identification details of the recipient of the cellphone or SIM card.
This is according to amendments being made to the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act, more commonly known as RICA, which was promulgated earlier.
The point of the amendment bill is to tighten up RICA and ensure that, ultimately, all users of cellphones can be identified.
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development is currently working through the amendments, which are aimed largely at getting service providers to speed up the recording, storing and verification of the identities of their network customers.
The RICA, which modernises earlier legislation to cater to the development of modern communications technologies including cellular telephones, is primarily intended to enable law-enforcement agencies to, with a warrant granted by a judge, intercept certain communications in their fight against crime.
These interceptions would be for mobile cellular operators, Internet service providers or fixed-line providers, other kinds of communications from other telecommunications service providers as well as ordinary oral conversation by means of bugging, for example, according to Sarel Robbertse, a senior state law adviser with the Department of Justice.
The RICA replaces the Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Act of 1992, which authorised a judge to issue a warrant to law enforcement authorities to intercept traditional forms of communications.
The current act states that telecommunications service providers must keep records of their customers, so that a database is established of customers on their networks.
However, prepaid cellular phones are currently "identityless", and South Africa is currently catching up with several other countries as it attempts to capture the identification of prepaid cellphone users, and the amendments seek to ensure that the recording of this data is a less "cumbersome" process, according to Mr Robbertse.
The amendments currently being discussed seek to tighten up the provisions of the Act, to ensure that all cellphone users' identities are recorded and stored.
The current intention is to give telecommunications service providers around 12 months to comply with the legislation and ensure that registration of customer information is available.
In terms of the proposed section under the RICA bill, if a person disposes of a cellular phone to another person that is not a family member, a certain procedure must be followed.
The proposed legislation caters to the registration of new cellphones - under the proposed section 40 of the bill - as well as the registration of "historical owners" of cellphones that are already in circulation.
The ultimate intention of the tightened legislation is to have a database of the names and identification numbers, and addresses, of cellphone service customers that match the mobile subscriber integrated digital network (MSISDN) numbers of activated SIM cards, and/or the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) numbers of cellular phones being used.
Similar legislation is in the process of being passed, or has already been passed, in an increasing number of countries as authorities around the world move to tighten up avenues of communications in an attempt to clamp down on criminal activity
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
10:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home