Off the wire
• China warns of geological disasters in the south  • Volume turnover in Albania's industrial sector drops 4.4 percent in Q4  • 1st LD Writethru: Azerbaijan destroys Armenian frontline command post, says defense ministry  • Indian stocks close higher on rate cut hopes  • More lock-up shares to become tradable in China  • Spotlight: Ukraine faces possible power reshuffle, but no major political shifts  • Iran says sends commandos to Syria on "advisory mission"  • 4 killed in suicide car bombing in Iraq's Basra  • China Focus: Tomb Sweeping Day brings tears back to Tangshan 40 yrs after quake  • (Recast) S.Korea to spend fiscal funds to develop supercomputer better than AlphaGo  
You are here: 　 Home

Bangladesh decides to fine operators for misuse of customers' fingerprints

Xinhua, April 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh's cabinet Monday decided to fine the cell phone operators for misuse of the customers' biometric data secured during the ongoing registration of SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards.

After the cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair on Monday, spokesman Mohammad Shafiul Alam told reporters that "mobile operators will have to pay a fine of up to 3 billion taka if found misusing subscribers'fingerprints secured during registration."

Alam said mobile operators have been taking the fingerprints to verify them with the National ID database.

In December last year, biometric SIM registration system was launched in Bangladesh to ensure the digital identity of the subscribers of cellular phone operators.

A subscriber now has to provide fingerprints while buying a SIM card. In case of users of previously issued SIMs, the subscribers have to register in the new process by April.

A High Court division bench of Bangladesh last month questioned the legality of bio-metric registration for purchasing mobile SIM cards.

The High Court bench came up with the rule after hearing a writ petition filed by a Supreme Court lawyer on March 9.

The Petitioner's counsel Muktadir Rahman had then told the journalists that the petition challenged the legality of biometric SIM registration as collecting such private information of citizens by the mobile operators, five of whom are foreigners, is not safe. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 79 taka) Endit