http://www.cybervictims.org by Dr.Debarati Halder
On women’s day, 2016, I was invited by Suriyan FM
Tirunelveli to share my opinion about safety of women offline and online. It is indeed a sweet
surprise for me each time I receive a call from the FM listeners who refer to
the particular programmes they have listened and took keen interest to learn
more about the risks involved in digital communication technology. This time I
had this listener who made me to think about Free SIM cards.
Truly speaking, even though Facebook or
WhatsApp may boast of its popularity in India, it has failed to penetrate the
rural sectors in India, especially with women. This was seen in our latest
survey titled “Harassment via Whatsapp in urban and rural India: A baseline
survey report, 2015”(see http://www.cybervictims.org/CCVCresearchreport2015.pdf)
. The main reason for this is obviously lack of awareness about safety
tools and the well settled fear in the
minds of women that using these platforms may necessarily land them in trouble.
But does that mean that women and men including matured teens in these areas
are reluctant to use digital technology
communication as a whole? Perhaps NO. Mobile telecommunication companies are rapidly
penetrating in the rural areas with offers on the services and this also
includes distributing Free SIMs to potential customers. This however, attracts youngsters more than
Facebook or WhatsApp because distribution of
free SIM cards may not always need proper verification of documents, if
distributed by local dealers including shops.
Due to easy availability of mobile phones including camera phones at
prices even below Rs. 2000 in Indian markets, people enjoy owning mobile
phones, most of which may be armed with inbuilt cameras and double SIM
facilities. Once one has a SIM card, it may become a matter of few more rupees
to upgrade the status of handset to use it as a medium of smart phones whereby the subscriber can use
the SIM for double purposes; i.e., for mobile phone calls as well as for mobile
data facility to enable him to get connected with internet, no matter whether
he/she knows about netiquettes or basic internet laws. Now, one must understand that SIM card is not an ordinary micro-level chip
that enables one to communicate with others. The full form of SIM stands for
Subscriber Identity Module, which carries information about the holder of the
SIM Card. In general, when a person buys a SIM card from a dealer, he/she is
asked to provide identity verification proofs that are sent directly to the
service provider to enable them to activate the SIM card in the name of the
buyer/subscriber. The data that is thus revealed to the service provider, stays
with them permanently as a private document which is not supposed to be exposed
to any third party unless the law and justice machinery, especially the police
and the courts demand such information under S.69 of the Information Technology
Act, 2000(amended in 2008) (Powers to issue direction for interception or
monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource) primarily.
Many a times when a distributor offers
Free SIM cards, it is necessary that the distributor checks the existing
‘contracts’ with the interested subscriber. This is what happens when one
wishes to get Free SIM cards from service providers like BSNL, which generally
provides such Free SIM cards at Free SIM card distribution ‘Mela’ and to those
who already own a landline from the same service provider.
In cases where free SIM cards are
distributed by local dealers of mobile phones , talk time or data recharge
services etc, there remains a risk of distributing used SIM cards for free.
These may be SIMs which have been technically ‘discarded’ by their original
owners, for various reasons including blocked numbers, stolen devices along
with SIMs etc. Once an interested person opts for such free SIM, he may get to
see several unknown contact options. There are cases where holders of FREE SIM
may also receive calls from unknown numbers at odd hours; risks relating to
data privacy for mails, social media accounts or even net banking may also be
there. We need to understand that not every one may be aware of lodging
complaint with the service providers regarding mobile phone (along with SIM)
theft, leave the question of reporting the matter to the police. Similarly,
there are numerous examples of how techno savvy criminals may re-fix the technically ‘destroyed’ SIMs to
distribute it in the market only to loot innocent people or make illegal profit
by secret data mining targeting women and young people. Added with it, one must
not forget the cyber terrorism scenario where innocent civil citizens are
‘used’ by numerous tricks including such lucrative offers of Free SIM
distribution to gain vital information. Keeping these in mind, young students,
especially those who have finished their 10th or 12th
board exams, college freshers and women
must be cautious enough to opt for availing SIMs just to be ‘SMART’.
Let us all unite to save our society.
Please Note: Do not
violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided
in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite
it as “Halder D. (2016), " Getting a SIM card for free? Check
these risks” 3rd April, 2016, published
in http://cybervictims.blogspot.in/
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