Expert warns of total phone surveillance by government

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian government has approved an initiative to introduce a unified database of IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) codes.

Commenting on the proposal in a Facebook post, information security expert Artur Papyan argued that "the state wants to take total control of your phone."

"At first glance, it sounds technical and harmless — 'fighting the shadow economy' and 'preventing phone theft.' But let's look at what is actually being proposed.

A massive database will be created linking your passport and personal information with your phone's IMEI code and all of your SIM and eSIM cards. This is not merely a tax administration tool; it gives the state the ability to see at any time who is using which device and when it connects to the network.

If that database, containing the data of 2.5 million users, fails even for a short period, operators will be forced to disconnect your service. We already know how state databases perform. For example, the first-grade school enrollment database, which this week only had to serve about 20,000 parents simultaneously, simply failed to function.

The draft also contains a dangerous provision: the administrator may use the data in this database to provide 'other digital services' to state and local authorities or even private companies. In other words, data collected supposedly to combat smuggling could tomorrow be used for entirely different purposes unknown to the public.

Concentrating data on every phone and citizen in the country in one place is a dream target for any cybercriminal. If this database is breached—and no system is invulnerable—every one of us will face security risks.

And now the most important point. The authors of the proposal claim it will help prevent theft. Let's be honest. How many of you, or your friends, have had a phone stolen, gone to the police with the box and the IMEI code, and still received no real assistance?

Yet I have little doubt that if the issue involved protesters or journalists critical of the authorities, their location would be identified through the IMEI within five minutes, followed by a masked police raid," he wrote.

If the proposal is adopted, IMEI codes for mobile phones imported by individuals will have to be registered online starting January 1, 2027, and a state fee will apply. Mobile operators will suspend or terminate service if an IMEI code is not registered.