Mexico's just passed a raft of invasive surveillance rules that require
phone companies to get the fingerprints of everyone who buys a phone:
Also Tuesday, the Senate voted to create a registry of cell phone
owners to combat kidnappings and extortions in which gangs often use
untraceable mobile phones to make ransom demands.
Telecoms would be required to ask purchasers of cell phones or phone
memory chips for their names, addresses and fingerprints, and to turn
that information over to investigators if requested.
At present, unregulated vendors sell phones and chips for cash from
streetside stands. It is unclear how such vendors would be made to
comply with the new law.
