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China Plans Surveillance System for Internet Cafes
nasty writes "According to Interfax China, China will install a special surveillance system in order to prevent 'unhealthy information and websites'. All internet cafes in China will have installed the new system by the end of 2004. This according to China's Ministry of Culture (MOC). The system requires the customers personal information, such as name, age, and their national citizen identification number, before they are allowed to log onto the Internet." Reader Dr.Hair submits another blurb about the system.
No matter what they try to do they will eventually fail to contain the information they are frightened of.
Perhaps an anonymous proxy could be set up and funded by the US, as it has in Iran.
Linux: Free if your time is worthless.
US officals say plan is "another evil of communism"...they went on to defend a similar measure to for Americans called Ashcr-o-ware that would weed out terrorists (ie file sharers and pot dealers)... wouldnt surpise me, Orwell was only 20 years off.
As most of us know, this is not an incident unique to China. Increasing surveillance is happening on a global scale. And most people seem not to care, which is actually the most scary part.
How long until we get telescreens?
Name, age, and national ID number?! Unless they have some kind of picture ID with a magnetic strip on the back which has to be inserted into a computer, after the photo has been checked by an official, how are they going to keep people who have somehow gotten hold of someone else's name, age, and ID number, from using that information when they log on?
Pity the poor bastard who has to explain to the chinese authorities that it wasn't he who was reading Slashdot at the local cafe, but an impostor.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
Then I thought of all the censorship software that China has employed in the past and the net nanny software installed in American libraries. People have always found a way around it.
Bit of a difference: bypassing NetNanny at a US library may get you tossed out of the building. In China you may well be imprisoned for your subversive behaviour.
Trolling is a art,
"What I found particularly amazing, was that the culture has taught people not to question things."
I'm not sure we can chalk that up to Chinese culture per se as much as decades of brutal repression of dissidents who dared question authority.
I realize history vs. culture is not a clean distinction to make, but thought it might be worth clarifying that many have dared to speak out. Those prone to do so were and continue to be dealt with harshly.
Those not imprisoned learn to shut up. Yet even today, knowing the penalties and risks, some still continue to protest.
Customers personal information, such as name, age, and their national citizen identification number, before they are allowed to log onto the Internet.
If only, we could have that here. Hold on. I have to pay for internet access. They usually want my name and some other identifying infomation such as address. I don't tend to use internet cafes though. I'm speaking of home internet. Why shouldn't they be required to write their name, age, and drivers license number here? What if the FBI came knocking on the door with printouts and said we know the guy that was here 2 nights ago at this IP and computer name is planning a bombing we need all the info. you have on him, now! It would be useful if you could provide a Name and Address.
I don't think that it should be required myself. I do believe that it will be required in libraries to "prevent minors" from viewing "adult content."
If Ashcroft thinks along those lines, a regulation here or there in licensing could bring it about with out any troublesome laws.
Remember, you only have to think around those pesky laws if you don't argee with them.
probably the same reason why we have oil deals with saudi arabia, despite the fact that most of the 9/11 terrorists were from there. i'm sure not every country agrees with what the usa is doing but still trades with us. we all tend to overlook certain "deficiencies" when there are greater "benefits".
My Chinese father has lived in the west for decades; this hasn't changed his opinions about authority and respect. I can attest to the fact that Chinese culture is a patriarchal culture of not questioning.
There are clear lines of authority in Chinese culture, and to attempt to question these is to dishonor not your family (perhaps by extension), not your nation, but yourself.
There is nothing more shameful in Chinese culture than questioning the wisdom of elders. Elders are not only generational (i.e. grandfather -> father -> son) but also hierarchical (national government -> local government -> individual). To question authority is to show that you have no regard for your family, your citizenship, your fellow man... it is to show, in some sense, that you are a kind of sociopath.
Even in the west, even disagreeing with government policies in democratic nations, my father feels that it is embarrassing and dishonorable to complain too loudly about what government does, because government is, after all, government--the embodiment of the collective. Activism, for him, is certainly sociopathic behavior of the most base kind, disrespectful to fellow citizens.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
We all know that China has one of the worlds lowest crime rates. So perhaps they do respect authority.
This is good and this is bad, its good because there's less wars, less terrorism, less crime. It's bad because there's less freedom.
Overall though the USA is no better, people at work never question authority. Everyone is anti government pro Boss, we kiss our bosses ass here and never question the word of the great boss at our job.
So in a way, the USA in the corporate world is no better when it comes to authority than China. I've never been pro authority, which is why I hated school and I can't stand the corporate world.
But there generally are two kinds of people, the ones who accept authority and the ones who can't. Generally the people who can't have a much harder time than the people who can, are more likely to drop out, or end up in prison.
It's not a cultural thing, its human nature for some people to respect authority and others not. In China however rebelling isn't an option because deviance is an American ideal. The rebels in China are quickly killed. Rebels in the USA are just locked in jail and then released after a while.
If the Black Panthers were hung, shot and murdered on national TV live, instead of just locked in jail people would think twice about challenging the government.
Perhaps this is why the Waco incident was on live TV.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
Are there any US companies involved in this? Weren't there some companies in an article last year who were helping the Chinese develop software to aid in censorship over the Internet?
SELECT (*) FROM PRISONERS
WHERE "TORTURE" = YES AND
"DEADYET" = NO AND
"PAINLEVELBEFOREPASSINGOUT" > 7
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
... in China, where there are no guaranteed freedoms, surveillance will be in situ, but here in the Land of the Free we guarantee the freedom of access but encourage surreptitious surveillance?
Not sure which is more unhealthy, but I can tell which is more honest.
I'm surprised this one hasn't got modded Troll yet. Oh well, I'll bite...
No, it's not shocking at all. Unfortunately, this is what we can fully expect from an oppressive, non-democratic government. It also tells us Westerners the kinds of things to watch out for in our own governments -- there but for the grace of God, and all. It seems outrageous to us now, but liberty has to be continually guarded and fought for, again and again, because we can be assured of the continued existance of dictators and wannabe dictators on both ends of the political spectrum. Someday in the near future, that news article could be about us.
The UK is more restrictive in many ways than the US (no right to bear arms, and a scant two centuries ago insulting the king could cost you your head, if I remember correctly). However, it had a strong concept of freedom and independence which was inherited by the first American colonists, who "fixed" many of the abuses of the English system that existed at the time, in the Constitution. Hence the Bill of Rights, separation of Church and State, division of power among three major bodies...lack of a king...etc.
There's no sig like this sig anywhere near this sig, so this must be the sig.
I was insufficiently clear in my previous post. Let me phrase it another way.
Do you really want to play cat and mouse with an organization that has no qualms with decapitating you?
How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
It is a grave error to assume that your enemies are foolish and you are clever.
NB: YMMV. IANAL. Take the above with a grain of salt.
Others who may not have that choice always have these choices in addition to the previous one I mentioned:
- Emigrate legally
- Emigrate illegally
- Instigate revolution against the decapitators
Of course, the farther down the list you go, the more side-effects there may be. Your mileage may vary.(What? Do you want unrestricted web access or not?)
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Why did you mount it in plain sight on your roof, you dodo? At least put it in the back yard, for corn's sake!
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
hmmm...you don't believe the parent's first hand experience? When were you ever in China? Do you know anybody who lived there? So we are to disregard the parent's primary source and go with your...what...tertiary...quaternary...saw it on tv or read it on slashdot source?