Moscow Metro Stations Could See SIM Card Snooping Machines Installed

Just how much of your privacy do you value? If you are still part of the dinosaur generation who relies on pencil and paper, and perhaps a pager, then you would not have to worry about the Moscow Metro Police head’s most recent reveal, touting that there will be special devices that will be installed at metro stations. These special devices are capable of reading information on your smartphone’s SIM card as long as it gets within range. Range here meaning anywhere within a radius of 20 feet.

Of course, we have absolutely no idea on just how many kinds of these special devices will be installed, and whether it would violate any privacy law or not, but a recent edition of the popular “Izvestia” paper in Russia mentioned, “According to experts, the devices can be used more widely to follow all passengers without exception.” That certainly sounds disturbing, don’t you think so? The whole idea of this particular move in installing such special devices would be to enable police to track down handsets that were reported as stolen, and it will work best in tandem with the timestamp located on security cameras. Should a reported lost or stolen SIM be detected nearby, the authorities will be alerted by the system automatically.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: russia, sim