New phone rules planned

How mobile operators manage biometric data would still be subject to strict privacy laws laid out in the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines

Johannesburg - If the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) proposal to link biometric data to SIM cards is approved, it would require providing biometric data to mobile service providers to obtain a new cellphone number or do a SIM swap.

The proposals were included among others which closed for public comment on 11 May this year. The Icasa proposal calls for biometric data such as fingerprint mapping, facial recognition and retina scans to be bound to a consumer’s SIM card.

Chief executive of iiDENTIFii security company Gur Geva said the proposals seek to protect consumers from identity fraud where phone numbers are used.

“Criminals who use a multitude of mobile numbers in fraud, money laundering, terrorism and kidnapping would have a harder time hiding from law enforcement should the new regulations be effective. Biometric data cannot be copied, so consumers would have more protection against their cell number being used in identity theft or fraudulent payments,” he said.

Geva said biometric technology is already a common security feature with service providers like banks and insurers to protect consumers.

“The proposed regulations are more sophisticated than the cur-