By February, you’ll likely have to submit a fingerprint scan to buy both pre- and postpaid SIM cards in Thailand.

The initiative, by The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), will extend to all mobile service companies without exception and NBTC would even like users that already have SIM cards to volunteer their fingerprints for security reasons.

The new security measure will happen via a digital fingerprint scanner and the record of the print will stay on the NBTC database.

There will also be an app developed that can verify that the fingerprint of the SIM holder is the same as the person who bought the card.

Mobile operators will develop an application that verifies customers’ fingerprints, reported Bangkok Post.

NBTC says that the fingerprint initiative is mainly for customer’s security and to verify their identity when using sensitive activities such as mobile banking.

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