If the UK government has its way, every person who purchases a mobile phone will be required to log their identity on a national database under the government’s plans to extend the powers of state surveillance.

This measure would require those people who purchase a mobile phone to present their passport or another form of official ID at the place of purchase. However, privacy campaigners believe this move could mark the government’s moves to create a surveillance society.

Whitehall has brought forward the idea of a register containing the names and addresses of everyone who purchases a mobile phone, and have been in talks with mobile carriers such as Vodafone, sources say.

If this move goes ahead the compulsory register of all 72 million mobile phones in Britain will become part of a much larger database to counter crime and terrorism.

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