"Biggest threat": EU Council leaders want to ban anonymous SIM cards

The sale of anonymous prepaid SIM cards is to be banned in the EU. This is provided for in a draft by the Polish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, as reported by the British civil rights organization Statewatch. Personal registration of cell phone cards is to become mandatory throughout the EU. According to the paper, which the Presidency sent to the delegations of the member states at the end of January, prepaid SIM cards have "become a tool for criminal activities". They represent "a real threat to public security".

According to Statewatch, the Council leadership points to a number of challenges if SIM card registration is not required: this would make cell phone users virtually invisible to the authorities, making it more difficult to monitor criminal activities such as drug trafficking, fraud or terrorism. Disposable SIM cards would only be used once, which would represent an obstacle to "long-term prosecution and preservation of evidence". The current non-harmonized legal situation in the EU countries means that offenders "use cards purchased in member states with less restrictive laws".

Anonymous SIM cards are often misused to set up "fake online accounts", the Council Presidency further argues. This facilitates cybercrime. Furthermore, identifying users would become more time-consuming and expensive for the authorities. Anonymous SIM cards in combination with encryption make it "even more difficult to intercept communications". Unregistered cell phone cards also make "the prevention of crimes in the planning phase" more difficult.

No significant advantages for investigators?

In some EU countries, such as Germany, there are already regulations on SIM registration. They require anyone who buys such a card to present an identification document. The telephone number and personal data in the ID document are then stored with the authorities. This makes it "considerably easier to monitor and identify mobile and internet accounts that require a telephone number", emphasizes the Polish government.

However, Statewatch argues that many citizens have a legitimate need for anonymous communication. This applies, for example, to whistleblowers, journalists, dissidents or people "who want to escape their violent partner". Governments and industry associations have also not yet provided any evidence that compulsory registration leads to fewer crimes.

The civil rights activists refer to a 2016 study by the GSM Mobile Service Providers Association (GSMA), which found that residents of at least 147 countries worldwide have to prove their identity in order to activate prepaid SIM cards. So far, however, there is "no empirical evidence that mandatory SIM registration leads directly to a reduction in crime. However, governments see it as a deterrent to the use of mobile platforms to support criminal activity." In 2007, the UK Executive stated: "Mandatory registration of cell phone ownership would not bring any significant new benefits to the investigation process."

Identification is mandatory in Germany

Since 2017, anyone buying prepaid cell phone cards in Germany has had to present an ID card to the retailer or directly to the network operator. A year earlier, the then grand coalition had rushed a corresponding identification requirement through the Bundestag as part of another anti-terror package. However, local civil rights activists also argue that anonymity is essential, for example for the anonymous expression of unpopular opinions on the Internet and the confidential coordination of political protests.

However, according to the European Court of Human Rights, the obligation for mobile phone providers to collect personal data such as name, address or date of birth from customers when purchasing prepaid products, which was initially introduced into the Telecommunications Act (TKG) in 2004, does not violate the Charter of Fundamental Rights. An appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court against the additional ID requirement introduced in 2016 when purchasing all cell phone cards is still pending.

Former Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer pushed for a more extensive online ID requirement through the back door as part of an amendment to the TKG. Telecommunications providers should therefore be obliged to "collect and verify identification features and make them available to the security authorities in individual cases". However, the CSU politician was unable to get his way with this. In 2021, the child protection policy spokespersons of the CDU and CSU called for participation in messaging services such as WhatsApp, Signal, Threema & Co. to be linked to a German number registered by name.

(wpl)