Send the government your fingerprints or lose your cell phone service

As with most developing nations, mobile use in Pakistan has been growing at a dizzying pace these past few years with an estimated 100+ million citizens using cell phones. The Pakistani government wants to use this to its advantage and, for what it claims is an effort to avoid another disaster like December’s Taliban schoolhouse massacre, will now require cell phone users to verify their identity by sending the government copies of their fingerprints.