British mobile phone users need passport

Well that comes as of no surprise, though this is crossing the line and trampling on human rights on a whole new level even for communist regimes like Chin... oh wait! You said UK?!
I'm getting confused! On the TV it says that western countries are the good guys who uphold human rights. Guess I shouldn't believe what they say and move to China where my rights are better respected, compared to the UK anyhow.

It seems that fear really leads to what Philip Dick wrote 1956. It's just sad.

Oy... that's so British. Why didn't they think of this earlier? This was apparent, that it need to be done sooner or later. An inevitable act in the face of terrorism. If I were a smart terrorist I would import my SIM cards from Wales, France or even Germany. Believe it or not a lot more money can be made via selling SIM cards at ten fold over a Iphone. VOIP will you continue to stay and talk with me?

Restrictions like these seem all well and good to government ministers on their £80k salaries. 

Some of us do not live in our own homes, and flatshare. The continual need to provide proof of address using multiple forms of ID is difficult when another party is paying your utility bills.

Furthermore: this data may be stored in a government supercomputer for access by the secret service, but you can bet your bottom dollar that in practice, a photocopy of your personal information, complete with the photo on your passport will be taken by the low paid phone store employee and kept on file. In a filing cabinet. Probably not even locked. 

What happens if you want to buy your next phone online? Or over the phone?

You will not be able to buy airtime with cash, you will have to pay with a credit card, and the name has to match.

"The data will be held in a supercomputer which can only be used by coppers and the secret services."

.... until its found on public transport (again)

There is no justification for such profoundly invasive actions. There is a name for when you see danger everywhere and everyone is a potential enemy: It’s called paranoia. Lets be very clear on what we are trading here: Our most fundamental foredoom removed one by one in exchange of the **illusion** of security. 

If there is no real catastrophic imminent danger, then ask yourself why infact there are doing what they are doing… The point is we should all be ready to die for our freedom because without it, we are just empty shells with no soul. Never forget that. Never accept compromise about freedom, no matter what. Challenge your elected representative and vote against such fascist and dictatorial policies. 

Democracy should be about the people, for the people, not against them.

Ramon

"Forced"?

I seriously doubt buyers will be held in a headlock and threatened until they show their passports.

I think you mean "required". It's an English word.

It seems that whenever the government decide that they need a new and improved database of everyone in the UK they use the excuse of 'antiterrorism', I don't seem to remember any of these measures being needed when the IRA were letting off bombs all over the country.

Maybe if the government did what the people wanted they wouldn't have to worry about terrorists.

We didn't want the war, it was forced upon us. 2 million people marched against it. It's not us who need to be watched and rounded up, it's crazy warmongers like Blair and his chum Cameron.

If you can call an anonymous prepaid phone they are dangerous since they are so easy to set up as a detonator or other activity unlikely to be legal.

It's another one of those tech conveniences that make every day life more risky and brittle. Putting the power grid sensors and controls on the common Internet is also problematic and unnecessary given that the grid has right of way everywhere. These "conveniences" will inevitably result in a degree of public surveillance and direction unprecedented in history. In the case of the grid they make a country vulnerable to inevitable cyber warfare by governments or NGO's. That should be sufficient grounds to not use either one.

The info required to buy cell phone service in the US can be paranoia inducing and includes your Social Security (universal id) number. It may be safer to get them at company owned stores rather than that small one tucked away in the city somewhere. I hate to say that. Also remember that recent phones mostly have GPS installed in them. For an older person with a medical problem, maybe that's a good thing. If you call emergency (911 here) maybe that's a good thing. But using paid services you can be tracked and companies are doing it with employees. Welcome to 1984 just a bit late.

ps - The latest Intel chip set PC's sold to businesses can invisibly track all data and everything done on the PC. Maybe IT just remotely fixes PC's with it, maybe not. Kids need to have their expectation of privacy changed markedly for all computer use, something schools are unlikely to do in their own interest.