A recycled mobile number is a "digital identifier" the state must protect, the High Court rules

Two prisoners challenged the unregulated reassignment of deactivated but previously registered mobile numbers, arguing such numbers constitute a person's digital identity and that mechanical reassignment after a period of inactivity — including inactivity caused by imprisonment — exposes personal information to third parties without any real safeguard. The Court agreed that a registered mobile number is a digital identifier attracting Article 31 protection, and that deactivation and reassignment without regard to a subscriber's circumstances poses a genuine privacy risk — while separately confirming that restricting prisoners' access to personal phones is itself a constitutional limitation. It ordered the Attorney General to develop safeguards against unfettered reassignment, with a default order that reassignment cease altogether if no regulatory scheme was implemented by a fixed deadline.