Kominfo Still Reviewing Prepaid Card Registration Policy With A Biometric System

JAKARTA - Three cellular operators in Indonesia, namely Telkomsel, XL Axiata, and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, have tested prepaid SIM card registration with facial recognition (face recognition) technology.

Seeing this fact, the Director General of Post and Information Administration of the Ministry of Communication and Information, Wayan Toni Supriyanto, said that cellular operators are ready with the biometric registration system.

"This means that the process of knowing your customer (KYC) in the Minister of Communication and Information (Permenkominfo 5 of 2021 Article 154) is already running and they are in this system ready," said Wayan when met at the Kominfo office on Monday, October 14.

However, although Wayan feels the cellular operator is ready, he insists that registration of prepaid SIM cards with this biometric system will not be implemented in the near future.

According to him, they still have to coordinate with the Population and Civil Registration Service (Dukcapil) to validate facial fits with population data there.

Wayan believes that registration with biometrics can minimize fraud or misuse of prepaid cards by irresponsible people.

"This means that during online registration or itself there will be a face recognition, later it will be added, so that the NIK Number KK plus its real face. So there are no more prepaid registration frauds," he continued.

Wayan has also confirmed that the Ministry of Communication and Informatics is designing a mobile card registration rule using biometric data. Because according to him, there is still something that needs to be studied in this policy including additional costs charged by the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration for every time the population data validation process to their system is validated.

"Yes, just wait, hopefully next year," he concluded.