[wwfzyn]

A mobile company that wants so much of their users ID info. Is it really necessary for them to get all that user info?

[trissylegs]

Yes. You need to provide legal id to get a phone number in Australia. This is handled by the phone companies themselves. But this is probably a good reason to not let them do it themselves.

[dbetteridge]

Yes it's legally required for them to properly verify your identity both for credit reasons (on a postpaid plan) and simply to identify who owns what phone number s

[qwery]

Probably not. As others have said, some of it is more or less legally required. What I don't understand is why they need to (or should be allowed to) retain that data in perpetuity.

[sumedh]

> What I don't understand is why they need to (or should be allowed to) retain that data in perpetuity.

Probably because there is no law saying you need to delete the data in X days.

[incompatible]

This doesn't even seem to include the traffic retention data that must be kept in Australia. That's an accident waiting to happen.

[quickthrower2]

Good question. I think the idea is you can’t have a burner phone. Well you can…for example use a foreign sim card of a less fussy telco. But in general this makes it harder to have a burner. Once we get to a point where telcos are not needed to make calls (that amazon wifi mesh for example) maybe we can do away with this need for ID anyway because it is futile.

[vermilingua]

Calls yes, but making calls is not what’s regulated in Australia. The ACMA regulates the assignment of Numbers in Australia, so make calls to your hearts content but if you want to be addressable by a e164 or IP number, prepare your documents.

[quickthrower2]

My point is in rural locations not at home you need a phone number to connect to 5G (or lesser G) for the data to make a non phone call.

[hnick]

They can verify the identity using a service - there is no need to keep actual documents after the fact.