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Mexico to Fingerprint Cell Phone Users to Fight Crime

by Darren Murph on February 12, 2009 at 04:38 PM


Not sure if you folks have heard, but apparently there are some serious gang-related issues in Mexico. Crazy, right? Just about two years after the Mexican government began swapping game consoles and computers for weaponry in a bizarre (and evidently futile) effort to curb crime, the country has now decided to take things one step further. Beginning in April, a law will require mobile phone companies to build up a fingerprint database of their clients, with the idea being to "match calls and messages to the phones' owners." Reportedly, there are around 700 criminal bands in Mexico, many of which utilize prepaid handsets in order to take care of business. Oh, and if you just so happen to lose your phone or loan it out, you've got to "report it immediately to avoid being held responsible for a handset used in a crime." Awesome.

[Image courtesy of BusinessWeek]

Tags: biometric, biometrics, fingerprint, global, mexico

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