Mexico Mandates Biometric SIM Registration for All Phone Numbers | Hacker News Reader

Mexico Mandates Biometric SIM Registration for All Phone Numbers

reclaimthenet.org

34 pointslatein12 comments

Yet more difficulties for vulnerable groups. Given how much cartels rule mexico, if this data gets in their hands the consequences are unimaginably bad.

And at the same time the cartel will point a gun at your mom and tell her to go buy a SIM and give it to them.

Will prepaid SIMs from outside Mexico no longer be able to roam onto Mexican mobile phone networks? Another problem. Given the notorious corruption my guess is it will just cost $xx to get a fake CURP. I'm sure there are other ways to circumvent. This leaves criminals with ample opportunities to avoid effective tracking but leaves out the legitimately at-risk populations mentioned in the article.

This will make phone number a proxy for Government ID, which is a step back for privacy. As applications start to hard code this assumption, the kinds of problems that make you want to change your phone number become exceedingly more difficult.

At least in Mexico your government ID is nothing private or confidential. Basically anyone can determine anyone else's ID with vastly publicly available information.

Unlike the US your ID is just an ID and not a form of secret or authentication token.

Interesting, Mexico has in the past been a big source of SIM cards for questionable activity in the US. Now the flow may be reversed but of course the cost is ~15x in the US. Or will there be a big influx of Honduran or some other CA county SIMS?

If we focus on the questionable activities segment, it will likely shift. Criminals will always find a way.

That's surprising, US sim cards are routinely used for questionable activity in the US. What kinds of questionable activities would benefit from using a Mexican SIM in the US?

Not a direct answer to your reuqestion re: questionable activity, but for me it's more about ease of access.

A SIM in the U.S. is significantly more difficult to acquire than a SIM in Mexico/many other countries.

E.g.

- Limit on # of SIMs purchased at retailers, low ability to use cash to purchase them, generally always on camera

- SIMs locked up behind the counter at lots of major retailers in the U.S.

- Activation requirements on U.S. networks for prepaid SIMs

Granted, if you're a company you can certainly acquire a lot of SIMs. A lot of questionable activity uses straw purchases, very similar to folks using smurfs to acquire pseudoephedrine in the 2000s.

Certain internet forums related to VOIP routing seem to have no lack of sellers offering to sell all kinds of US sim cards by the thousands, I don't think availability is an issue.

Historically, availability was very different between the two countries when we're specifically talking about purchasing SIMs for questionable activity.

Physically acquiring the SIMs is only one part of the process as they're pretty worthless without going through the activation process.

Prior to this year in Mexico (which introduced ID-based regulations around SIM purchase/activation), you could buy a SIM at a remote gas station, a data package in cash, and activate it without giving your name/email/etc. Now, in 2026, you have to show an ID/passport to do that.

The U.S. doesn't have a federal regulation (as far as I know) for this. That level of network protection is usually at the provider level. However, activating the SIM almost always requires an email or existing phone number and not just purchase/possession of the SIM+top-up card. Purchasing the top-up card sometimes can be done in cash, other times requires a pre-paid debit which has its own limitations/regulations due to a mix of KYC/AML. But applying said top-up card usually still requires at least some form of identity verification. For some of the top national providers, and I'm not sure what model they use to gauge risk to make this decision, they even require an SSN (for prepaid!) and run some form of a check on you (I'm not entirely sure if it's a soft credit check or what).

what a bad idea...

this would be laughably easy to circumvent and terribly easy to abuse

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