New Personal Information Provision for Pre-Paid SIM-Card Registration

The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (“ Ministry ”) has issued Regulation No. 21 of 2017 (“ Second Amendment ”), which makes a second amendment to Ministry Regulation No. 12 of 2016 on the Registration of Telecommunications Service Customers (“ Regulation 12/2016 ”). [1] Regulation 12/2016 has already been amended once previously through the issuance of Ministry Regulation No. 14 of 2017 (“ First Amendment ”). [2] The Second Amendment is ultimately aiming to increase the level of personal data protection for Subscriber Identification Module (“ SIM ”) card customers by removing the requirement to provide the name of their biological mothers during the mandatory SIM-card registration process, which is to be undertaken via a process of self-registration.Self-Registration via SMS or Contact CenterAs is commonly known, pre-paid SIM cards must be registered by their prospective customers (“Customers”) before they can be used for telecommunications purposes. Such registrations can be undertaken through two methods, specifically: 1) Self-registration; or 2) By visiting outlets which have been established by telecommunications service providers (“Provider”) or by their partners. [3] If self-registration via short-messaging service (“SMS”) or contact center is the registration method of choice, then the registration procedure is as described below: [4]