Vietnamese Gov't to Monitor Net Cafe Customers

echucker writes: "In a story reminiscent of a recent slashdot article about a Chinese crackdown, CNN is reporting that the Vietnamese government plans to keep tabs on users at over 4,00o net cafes there. Local officials are to report back to national authorities by July 7th on status of cafes in their jurisdiction. Better surf quick, folks!"

Comments

A Bit of Perspective on this Issue

[Locke!Erasmus]

It really amazes me sometimes how good we have it and how badly citizens of other countries have it.

A little over two hundred years ago, the colonists in America rose up over issues like taxation, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion...

Ok...so our ancestors (for those of us who are American) didn't have equal representation, their tea was too expensive, and they couldn't talk smack about the King...

The didn't have to put up with, and we don't have to put up with...

• The government telling us how many babies we can have, and killing any that are "unauthorized" just as they are born
• Going without food of any kind for days because the government squanders food supplies and spends all its money on bigger, badder weapons
• Forced adherence to a political ideology (well ok, the Founding Fathers had to put up with the Sedition act and were subjects to the King)
• A head of state who uses chemical weapons on his own citizens
• A state "security service" who can snatch citizens off the street and do anything with them, any time, any place, any reason, but no recourse

The lists I've just written down are obviously not meant to be exhaustive or conclusive...just put things into a bit of perspective. When citizens of other countries are treated with far less value than those of us in the developed world, why would they care if their internet activity is being monitored? I think they have far bigger issues than that.

The really interesting question for me is, what is the breaking point for each of these peoples? Internet privacy might be a big issue for us because we're well-fed (most of us) and don't have to worry about how we're going to pay for a movie ticket, but for a lot of people in other parts of the world, I think it's just a continuation of the status quo into another part of life. In fact, I'm amazed that Internet cafe's weren't monitored by nations like China or Vietnam in the first place!

I'm afraid I don't really know enough history to be able to answer that question.