M M Jasim :As the sale of fake registered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards was detected on Wednesday, people expressed concern whether their biometric registration along with fingerprints are being used properly or not.They expressed their concern as police yesterday arrested 22 people, including distributors and officials of international mobile operator Airtel, from different parts of the city for their alleged involvement in selling falsely registered SIM cards. At the same time, if the fake registered SIM cards are being sold there is a high risk that the database can be leaked to the international criminal network, people apprehended. Of the 22 arrestees, the police identified two as Airtel distributors Moumin Mia and Shafiqul Islam, and another one identified as Mohammad Wahid, a territory sales manager of the same telecom operator. Deputy Commissioner (Tejgaon Zone), Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Biplob Kumar Sarker told The New Nation yesterday that the arrestees belong to an organised crime gang and they have planned to commit crimes in the country using the fake registered SIM cards. “Thousands of SIM cards have been registered and re-registered by the underhand dealings between the officials of the mobile phone companies and employees of distributors and retailers. The distributors and the retailers took fingerprints for several times (4-5 times) from thousands of people during recently concluded biometric re-registration. Later, they used the finger impressions again to register SIMs in others’ name apparently to commit criminal activities,” he said. DC Tejgaon Zone also said that the three staffs of the Airtel have already admitted their involvement in the fraudulence activities (fake registration of the SIM cards). “We are quizzing all the arrestees and trying to know who have remained behind the scene as masterminds,” he said. Meanwhile, the Airtel has acknowledged the issue. Airtel’s Chief Service Officer Rubaba Dowla, also spokesperson of the organisation, told the media that they were preparing an official statement in this regard. “The company will do everything to ensure compliance,” she added. After conducting raids to bust out the criminals’ den yesterday, police went to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and asked the Airtel authorities to meet.Several people expressed their utmost dissatisfaction over the latest SIM forgery and said that they were in doubt whether their biometric registration along with fingerprints would be used properly or not. “Our doubt has become true…Personal security of thousands of people who registered their SIM through biometric are now at risk. What the government will say now?” Shamsul Kabir, a private jobholder told The New Nation on Wednesday. Earlier many people expressed concerns that biometric data, provided to some foreign companies, might violate their privacy as well as be used for criminal activities. Besides, they alleged the collection of such information might hamper the security and safety to the country’s people. “It is very much risky to register a SIM in biometric system as the mobile operators are all outsiders. How secured are our fingerprints with these companies?” Kamrul Hasan, works at a private company, said raising a question. “I don’t want to deliver my fingerprint to any private telecom company. If the government was collecting the fingerprints, there is nothing to say. But why am I asked to give my data to a foreign company?” also questioned Rahat Raihan, a student of University of Dhaka. Alami Nihat, an engineer of an IT firm, told this correspondent, “Biometric information of our citizens is not secured with any multinational organisation. Only the state can collect and store these types of information. If any company or organisation stores the data, they can use it to commit criminal offense. Government should ensure that the state protects the information. If the fingerprints are obtained by any outsider the information might be misused. With such information one can personify anyone.”Realizing the matter the BTRC directed all the mobile telecom operators to assure protection of the data given by their respective subscribers on March 4 this year. It also directed the operators to preserve mobile phone users’ biometric data only to Operators Biometric Verification Platform and to Central Biometric Verification Monitoring Platform. But some of the mobile telecom operators did not follow the BTRC’s direction properly. They collected the information and completed registration and re-registration through thousands of retailers and agents. In order to register a SIM card through this system, the subscribers have to give fingerprints, personal information according to their national identity cards to their respective mobile phone operators. The dissatisfaction comes to such a level that, a Supreme Court lawyer Md Humayan Kabir Pallab recently served a legal notice on behalf of Khairul Hasan Sarker seeking a halt to biometric registration for SIM cards of mobile operators claiming it violates privacy and has a potential unethical intention. However, Tarana Halim, State Minister for Post and Telecommunications, assured that, “Thumbprints taken for registration and re-registration of mobile-phone SIM cards under the biometric method will not be preserved at any level. They are only to match with the fingerprints kept at the central database.” The government made mandatory for SIM re-registration with biometric finger prints which started from 16 December last year and concluded May 31 this year. According to official figures, 116 million of over 130 million subscribers across the country had completed the biometric re-registration of their SIM cards until June 4.
