MANILA — The SIM card registration law will not deter perpetrators of SMS scams and spams, a data privacy lawyer said on Wednesday.

According to lawyer Maria Cecilia Soria, the SIM registration only places heavy burden on 180 million subscribers in the country.

"As a lot of digital rights activists have been pointing out, the experience of other countries [has] shown that it does not really prevent scams and spams conducted over SMS," she told ANC's "Rundown".

"We are creating burdens all around basically just because we have few rotten eggs," she continued.

In Indonesia, some 1.3 billion SIM card registration data was breached.

"In order to deter the scammers, we need to burden 180 million subscribers [and] require them to register. Require telcos to build data bases and continually protect these data bases. So, it's a lot of burdens spread all around across all sectors of society," Soria said.

• Implementing rules for SIM registration released with hefty fines for violators

She also pointed out that many Filipinos don't have valid identification cards, which are required for the SIM registration.

The SIM registration act mandates the registration of all SIMs using valid IDs with photos.

The government hopes the law will enable law enforcement to combat spam and scam text messages, many of which offer fake jobs or promises of prize money.

It also gives police another way of tracking militants in the country's south who are known to favor mobile phones to remotely detonate improvised explosive devices.

While most countries have mandatory SIM card registration, dozens do not require it, including the United States and Britain, according to UK-based Privacy International.

The surveillance watchdog says registration puts users at risk of "being tracked or targeted" and has proven "ineffective" at reducing crimes in some countries.

The SIM registration was off to a rocky start on Tuesday.

Telco giants Globe and Smart reported issues on the first day of SIM registration, as many subscribers also expressed disappointment with difficulties in registering.

• Globe, Smart report issues on 1st day of SIM registration

— With reports from Davinci Maru, ABS-CBN News; Agence France-Presse

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