The Taliban’s curious love of SIM cards
restofworld.org
Afghanistan’s extremist rulers learned what all governments now know: SIM cards are worth every penny.

Ai generated TLDR:

The Taliban is distributing free SIM cards to Afghan refugees, likely to collect biometric data for tracking and surveillance purposes. SIM cards are valuable to governments for controlling communication networks and monitoring populations. Despite economic uncertainty, Afghanistan’s telecom industry has reported positive growth, with plans for building new towers. The Taliban’s regressive policies have barred women and girls from working, being educated, or visiting parks, and the value of tracking them is higher for the Taliban than the risk of giving them access to the world’s information. Internet shutdowns and government control over communication networks can cause economic and civilian harm, yet they are becoming increasingly common worldwide.

  • Chup@feddit.deEnglish
    91·
    10 months ago

    As you didn’t read the article:

    “This move seems driven by the government’s interest in collecting and centralizing biometric data for identification, tracking, and surveillance purposes,” he said. Omar agreed: “Probably to keep track of the refugees.”

    They hand out SIM cards to track those SIM cards. Using a certain messaging app on the phone or not doesn’t change SIM card tracking within the network.

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      Surveillance purposes

      Can include the contents of messages you’re sending. So if they’re using Signal, then at least they can’t see what they’re talking about.

      • cjf@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Would be awesome if they somehow ended up using signal as a means to facilitate remote learning. Mind you they’d have to be very careful and hide it from any potential snitches…

    • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pubEnglish
      21·
      10 months ago

      Signal doesn’t require a SIM card… it can send with wifi…

      So yes, signal would work just fine and they wouldn’t need a “free” SIM card.

      Next I want to see someone send a flock of pigeons or hawks with free sims

      • YMS@kbin.social
        3·
        10 months ago

        If you don’t want to communicate with non-Signal users and are always within range of a public or known Wifi network where ever you are in Afghanistan, then I guess this is fine.

        • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pubEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Right, so if you’re sending non-encrypted messages, you are indeed still sending non-encrypted messages, which defeats the whole purpose