The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment Bill, which aims to tighten up laws that allow the police to monitor electronic communications, has been tabled in Parliament.

The Bill will ensure that physical addresses registered by providers correspond to clients' cellphone users. Service providers are expected to be asked to provide a system of information storage, giving full names, identity numbers and address to all subscribers. Any provider of telecoms must verify the details of their clients within 12 months, notes Business Report. These include the MSISDN number; the cellphone number; the cellphone handset number; and the IMSI number, which is a number allocated to a SIM card for identification purposes. This detail must also correspond to the client's identity number. This broadens the scope of what is an identity number. In addition, foreign visitors will need to inform authorities of their cellphone details and passport numbers or risk their service being blocked.

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