Pakistani Wifi Privacy Concerns - NIC

[flameboard]

I've been in Pakistan for a little it and been to many places. Some commercial and some government places where to use the wifi you have to enter your National Identity Card (NIC) number.

Having come from abroad this raises a lot of privacy concerns for me..

1. Is the government looking to link your online information to your national identity?

2. Are private wifi routers collecting information of citizens that may be abused later?

3. What level of safety can you expect from data that is so being collected everywhere?

I've already been made aware of public scams where individuals try to steal your private information such as your NIC number, thumb print and name. Can anyone shed light on these issues?

 

[pakpride00090]

I've been in Pakistan for a little it and been to many places. Some commercial and some government places where to use the wifi you have to enter your National Identity Card (NIC) number.

Having come from abroad this raises a lot of privacy concerns for me..

1. Is the government looking to link your online information to your national identity?

2. Are private wifi routers collecting information of citizens that may be abused later?

3. What level of safety can you expect from data that is so being collected everywhere?

I've already been made aware of public scams where individuals try to steal your private information such as your NIC number, thumb print and name. Can anyone shed light on these issues?

Who the hell asks for NIC number to access wifi... That is really a privacy breach.

 

[Haris Ali2140]

I've been in Pakistan for a little it and been to many places. Some commercial and some government places where to use the wifi you have to enter your National Identity Card (NIC) number.

Having come from abroad this raises a lot of privacy concerns for me..

1. Is the government looking to link your online information to your national identity?

2. Are private wifi routers collecting information of citizens that may be abused later?

3. What level of safety can you expect from data that is so being collected everywhere?

I've already been made aware of public scams where individuals try to steal your private information such as your NIC number, thumb print and name. Can anyone shed light on these issues?

Any example???

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

Ive never heard anybody askin for CNICs for wifi lol.

 

[Shabi1]

I've been in Pakistan for a little it and been to many places. Some commercial and some government places where to use the wifi you have to enter your National Identity Card (NIC) number.

Having come from abroad this raises a lot of privacy concerns for me..

1. Is the government looking to link your online information to your national identity?

2. Are private wifi routers collecting information of citizens that may be abused later?

3. What level of safety can you expect from data that is so being collected everywhere?

I've already been made aware of public scams where individuals try to steal your private information such as your NIC number, thumb print and name. Can anyone shed light on these issues?

Public Wifi anyplace (not just Pakistan) is insecure and is inviting people to steal your data. There is a technique called packet sniffing and anyone on the network can have a capture software running and later sort out your private information from it. My suggestion and what I do is to use my cellphone data connection rather than any public wifi. Data plans are cheap now and 4G often gives better performance than on these shared public WiFis.

If you absolutely have to use someone elses Wifi and are paranoid on security can use a paid VPN service.

I bought a lifetime subscription for VPN unlimited back when there was a youtube ban in Pakistan and it has been a great investment.. Its more expensive now so can look for alternatives.
https://www.vpnunlimitedapp.com/en

 

[Sine Nomine]

Ive never heard anybody askin for CNICs for wifi lol.

Any example???

LDA Head Office Lahore,once i went there Wifi was ON,it auto connected and a browser window popped up,asking me to enter NIC number for using free Punjab Govt Wifi service.

 

[Zayan]

I've been in Pakistan for a little it and been to many places. Some commercial and some government places where to use the wifi you have to enter your National Identity Card (NIC) number.

Having come from abroad this raises a lot of privacy concerns for me..

1. Is the government looking to link your online information to your national identity?

2. Are private wifi routers collecting information of citizens that may be abused later?

3. What level of safety can you expect from data that is so being collected everywhere?

I've already been made aware of public scams where individuals try to steal your private information such as your NIC number, thumb print and name. Can anyone shed light on these issues?

I've used many times but never faced any problem like this

 

[SecularNationalist]

Ive never heard anybody askin for CNICs for wifi lol.

Mee too lol i dont know from where OP tried to use a wifi.

 

[SideWinderX37]

I only know that public wifi ask for your phone number in order to verify and in my university it ask for my roll# but i don't know any other use case where we need to give more info to connect.

 

[Old School]

Do not use free services to access Internet. In any case, use good VPN.

 

[flameboard]

Any example???

Karachi airport some some other government buildings I can’t remember off the top of my head which I just assumed were normal but then I noticed it again at a Karachi restaurant at this point I’m surprised when I’m not asked for an NiC.

I think the Karachi airport on is run by CAA. I’ll look up the name of the restaurant and post it back here.

The old wifi setup for the restaurant was painted on the wall but wasn’t available. They told me to use the free wifi that asked for NIC

Wifi networks that ask for your NIC also ask for your phone number and they’re supposed to text you the password. Either way it seemed like they were accepting any random numbers as an NIC and any phone number. I didn’t put down valid numbers for either because I felt weird.

also the staff at one of these locations said that it wouldn’t process the info if the information entered was false but at least on the registration end random numbers worked. But I got no access because I didn’t enter a valid number to get a password sms