The problem of mobile anonymity
Dystopia is in full swing in Europe, and achieving true anonymity from mobile devices is a big problem. The picture below shows that most countries require mandatory registration of SIM cards on the national ID or passport. This means that all mobile operators in a given state (and, of course, the state institutions themselves) have complete location information of their citizens using local SIM cards. The official reason for the mandatory registration of SIM cards is to fight crime and organized crime. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that compulsory registration of SIM cards leads to lower crime (I recommend the study Mandatory registration of prepaid SIM cards – Addressing challenges through best practice). On the contrary, there is evidence that totalitarian governments repeatedly abuse mandatory registration of SIM cards to monitor their critics and opponents.
