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3 min read . Updated: 01 Jun 2021, 05:42 PM IST The government Tuesday unveiled plans to require people in Hong Kong to provide their real name and other personal details when registering mobile phone numbers, a move that critics said would further curtail people’s freedoms and stoke fears of surveillance.
Officials said the change was necessary to aid investigations by law-enforcement agencies and would help tackle thefts by phone scammers preying on city residents, as well as drug trafficking and other organized crimes. It puts Hong Kong in line with about 155 countries including France, Germany and South Korea that have similar measures, officials have said.
The proposal has touched a nerve in the Chinese territory, however, where fears of surveillance run high amid a continuing crackdown on dissent. Activists and opposition politicians have had phone messages used by police as evidence against them for alleged violations of the National Security Law imposed in June.
During antigovernment demonstrations that rocked the city in 2019, many protesters took steps to conceal their identities by using pseudonyms on messaging platforms and buying spare SIM cards for communication. Currently, while users who subscribe to SIM service plans from carriers do register their names, people can buy or top up prepaid SIM cards from convenience stores and other outlets without doing so.
“The Hong Kong government continues to make policies that show they don’t trust their own citizens," said Lokman Tsui, an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He described the policy, which will see registrations begin next year, as a further erosion of privacy and trust in Hong Kong.
Some countries with similar requirements also have mechanisms and procedures in place that prevent abuse, and don’t use national security laws and surveillance to crack down on political dissent, he added.
Authorities have shrunk political and civic freedoms since the sweeping national security law was imposed last June in response to long-running social unrest. More than 10,250 people have been arrested in connection with the antigovernment protests in 2019, according to the latest official figures, and a majority of the city’s leading pro-democracy opposition figures have been put behind bars.
One of the main purposes of introducing real-name registration is that law-enforcement agencies should be able to obtain information to help their investigations when a crime is suspected, Edward Yau, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, said in a news conference on Tuesday.
Residents in Hong Kong getting a new SIM card must provide their name, identity card number, a copy of their identity document and their date of birth to telecommunications operators under the government proposal. The police will have to obtain a warrant from a magistrate when requesting such records, except in exceptional circumstances, which are described as suspected crimes punishable by at least three years of imprisonment or HK$1 million ($128,875) in fines.
The new policy is expected to come into force in September after it is introduced in the city’s legislature this month. Telecom providers will have six months to develop a system to register and store user information, Mr. Yau said, and registrations will begin on Mar. 1.
Despite widely publicized warnings, telephone scams in Hong Kong involving eye-watering sums have generated headlines. Earlier this year, police said a 90-year-old woman swindled by fraudsters posing as Chinese officials lost nearly $33 million.
Write to Elaine Yu at elaine.yu@wsj.com
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