My phone number doesn't work anymore

Don’t worry, I can connect to Wi-Fi networks, I just lost mobile data access and phone calls with my current SIM chip.

You see, the silly government of my beautiful country decided that the best way to stop scam, blackmail and other crimes via phone calls would be to force everyone into registering their phone numbers with their ID card and a face scan with the phone’s camera.

A huge percentage of the population never did this on the original deadline and the plan utterly failed. No phone company disabled any phone numbers because the monetary losses would be too much. So things were fine, at least for a little more time.

They decided instead to give a different deadline to every phone number based on the last digit (0-9), a slower rollout that would make people more nervious, as the peer pressure would slowly build up. Since my phone ends with a 1, my line was deactivated on October 31st, 2026.

Of course, I can still get my phone back, by doing the proper registration process, and everything would go back to normal in no time. But a part of me just doesn’t want that. I just don’t understand the need for this.

First off, the criminals have already circumvented this, there are still scam calls, there are criminals who have registered phones on behalf of other people, this is doing absolutely nothing to actually stop crime.

Then there’s the security of it all. We have no idea where that database is going, and as much as they promise that the face scan is a one-time thing that doesn’t get stored anywhere, we can’t actually be sure of it.

This is honestly just messed up in many levels, but it’s also just ridiculous. It’s the government! They already have our IDs, they already could have all the data they want from us. Why exactly do they need another database for this? Some people even expose their numbers and address on their ID already.

The registration process is also super badly implemented, and there’s people who have gotten around it with AI images and fake credentials, plus those using stolen information from other people and getting away with it. Seriously, it’s probably some vibecoded slop checker or something, I haven’t even bothered to open the page myself, I am just angry that it has to be like this.

Ugh, this is also yet another form of surveillance isn’t it? Now that phones are directly linked to individuals (if the whole database and infrastructure works well), then that would mean any individual can easily be silenced by having their phone access blocked like this right? Just bad vibes everywhere.

Our only hope is that telecommunication companies are still losing a lot of money, with people that are not paying their phone plans anymore and maybe realizing that they don’t even need a phone line at all nowadays.

Many individuals are happily making phone calls via Wi-Fi with WhatsApp (I know, I know, but it’s how it’s) and other messaging apps, without relying on their SIM chip.

Personally, since I have a work phone that was registered by my company, I simply use that as a hotspot and stay communicated with it when necessary.

Look, I am super angry, but if more people start to register their phone I may have to give it up and register my face on their silly database that is probably stored in a publicly accesible AWS bucket or whatever. Who cares at this point?

It will be one more of the many silly things I do despite being a privacy/FOSS/tech enthusiast, I guess.

This is day 29 of #100DaysToOffload