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China Will Monitor, Censor SMS Messages
maggeth writes "Early reports on the AP (via Yahoo) indicate that China will begin monitoring and censoring SMS communications in real time. China's 'great firewall' is infamous, but the move to censoring SMS has been slow due to technological roadblocks. Algorithms are used to identify key words and combinations of words that might be associated with 'political rumors and "reactionary remarks,"' and the system automatically notifies local police. Something to think about on your Fourth of July weekend!" Reader ackthpt adds links to coverage at the BBC and The Register, asking "What next, a massive government database system to track every message and contacts between people?"
I'm almost tired of hearing stories about this sort of thing. Is it an Amercian "we are better" additude or what? Check out the policy that AT&T has regarding SMS, turns out they log 3 months worth ... ala, the Amercians monitor it too.
However, because its written in black and white in the agreement it's no news... ahh yahh..
Wireless Security Cameras
Gamblers Forum
The NSA is prevented from spying in America or on American citizens. This is quite different than the Chinese government.
The more you know, the less you understand.
Though the Chinese Government now trying to maintain such control over it's population is fighting a losing battle. Control WAS just about possible before the prolification of IT for the masses, but now the Chinese Government is trying to stop the tide. There is NO WAY to keep up such control on modern communications. Even with auto-text-pattern matches and auto-calling-of-the-local-police, all the participants need to do is use code words!
I think we can expect the Chinese Government, in the next couple of years, in effect throw in the towell and permit uncensored communication to occur. If they do not the populus will have found ways round it anyway. Then what - who knows... I hope not another Tiananmen Square.
Web Sig: Eddy Currents
I live in Shanghai for almost a year now, and I have never seen anyone showing any ID card when buying or recharging a mobile phone card.
Most people use a prepaid card that they recharge in 30, 50 and 100 Yuan quantities.
It works quite well and I have been using such a quasi anonymous card for almost the whole time.
How would the government track down such numbers to names? Maybe through correlation of SMS communication?
yeah there are im clients that can be used for semi-secure conversations, like trillian and gaim, but the fact is that if someone with resources (like china) wants to break the code, then the code will get broken, its just that simple unfortunately, although it may take a while to do, with todays most modern and highpowered computers, you could easily crack a message perhaps even within a day. But the fact of the matter is that noone really cares, we have secure email, but almost noone actually bothers to encrypt their email do they? People allow emails with sensitive information to fly across the net, unencrpyted, and this happens all the time, my estimate is that at least 3/4 of all computer users dont know what encryption is past a rudimentary concept, and 9/10 of the remainder don't bother to actually use encryption although they know about it... just my two cents
Our sales guys are known to send SMS messages about "got [big client]" and similar.
If someone can listen in to such communicatios, there's a big opportunity for really hard to detect illegal stock-market trading with insider information they pick up from sales people in other companies.
I have many friends who are of the opinon that its only a matter of time before China takes over the world. I find it hard to believe that such things could be practiced by a world controlling country, but I guess they already are. Living in the US, its so easy to forget that more people live in China thatn the US. And that these things are an everyday experiance for these people. We live in frightening times.
- Captbaritone
...we'll always have China to remind us that the good old USA still remains the land of the free.
...we'll always have China to remind us how good we used to have it.
"It could be worse" is an awful justification for the present. If you continue to think that way your statement above will look slightly different in a few years....
That is to say, we could fall farther down the slippery sloap than China ever has.
(Yes, this post is BS - but this is YRO, such is the norm under that flag.)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/03/text_punk/
And I'm sure it happens in the USA as well.
Today one can use some Java app that runs on a Java-enabled phone. This way at least you know what you are running. But a generic solution would need to be built into all the phones, and that can't happen overnight.
Hasn't anyone been paying attention to the motions being filed in the Kobe Bryant trial? The defense specifically subpoenaed the accuser's cellphone provider, requesting that they hand over copies of all text messages that she sent on the night of "the incident." The defense apparently believes that the accuser texted her other boyfriend(s) that night, with messages that could be pertinent to the case.
That this information was able to be requested in the first place was quite a shock to me. The request presumes and assumes that the cellphone company keeps copies of all text messages sent across its network; and as far as I've heard, there's been no denial of this capability! I had previously assumed that text messages existed in the moment, but that apparently isn't true. Every text message you send or receive is potentially being logged by your wireless provider.
Careful what you say, it may come back to haunt you, even if it isn't Big Brother doing the watching.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
It's better to have some idea when you're being watched, if you live in a police state. If in a police state you're being watched and /not/ censored, you never really know if /you're/ the one being watched. If your messages start getting censored, well it would be obvious.
In some ways, China has a more honest approach with their barbarism than the US. China is at least very upfront about their intentions. They are watching and you may go into a gulag. It's pretty clear. In the US, you are being watched and instead of being clear coherent about it, they always try to mindfuck you. "For your safety. For the Homeland."
If there was ever a word that would come from a sociopath, it would be the word "Homeland". That is not a common word in the American lexicon.Words like this don't appear out of the blue. Lot of thought went into that. A lot of thought about thinking. Kind of like how Pavlov thought about his dogs.
All this bold and blatent meddling with the American psyche is starting to scare me. Such disrespect and careless tampering sends a message loud and clear. "We own you." And it's true. Americans, and most people around the world are owned property in so many subtle ways, that once you add them all together, there is no room left over for anyone (who desired it) to be free. Let's let debt be one of the less subtle methods to allowing yourself to become property. Consider cultures immense pressure to encourage debt for everyone. Consider what is happening to culture itself. No longer a free and natural exchange of information between human beings but a top down force-feeding of this sick "television culture" we have. You are composed of the information you allow yourself to be exposed to.
You fools will protect your computer with a firewall but when it comes to your own brain you feel invincible and plop down on the couch for hours on end and let an entire universe of sociopaths(a direct metaphor for marketing) have their way in any way they want with your own brain.
This is a sad and critical time in human history. I wonder what's going to become of us? Keep an eye on the television brain-washed crowd. I suspect whatever strange crap happens, they're gonna get it first. Think about it. You might consider life as some 70 odd years of crossing busy intersections. If you aren't paying attention the more subtle trucks will run over you first, followed by whatever else crosses your path when you're not looking.
What did your television tell you do do in the days shortly before the big internet/stocks crash. your television told you to buy. *splat*
This is common sense. Pull your heads out of your asses. Thanks.
If the leash is removed right now and the Party dissolved, only the worst types of people - the most despicable arch-villains, mobsters, aspiring politicians - will be on top, simply because they know how to wield power. It would be awfully reckless to give them the power. China will be torn into pieces, and every one will have The Bomb.
In Australia during the Tampa "crisis" (when four hundred odd refugees were rescued by the contaainer ship Tampa Bay), the Defence Signals Directorate intercepted phone conversations between the Maritime Union of Australia and the Tampa, and passed on transcripts of the conversations to the government.
They were caught that time, but it's probable that they're routinely scanning both internal and overseas (the Tampa is Norwegian) conversations. The tapping was judged to be illegal, but no prosecutions occurred, and nothing has been changed to prevent a repetition.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Some guy gets picked up by Special Branch for sharing Clash lyrics by SMS.
I imagine this happens to most SMS messages in Europe. (Echelon conspiracies, yada yada) The US may have a less joined-up Big Brother, but that will probably have more to do with the general lack of integration of their mobile network.
Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, Never drive a car when you're dead
While most of this post is OK, the one thing that I must take exception with is that the police, or any government agency, has no 'right' to do anything. What they have is an 'authority' to perform certain actions that come from the people to act on our behalf. We have checks and balances to prevent abuse of that authority in the US. We also extend as in the Patriot Act and do regulate that authority as in the Miranda Act, habeus corpus, posse comitatus (ignored by Clinton and Reno in Waco, TX) and other guide lines. And as the last line notes, the Red Army guards the borders to keep the people in. No one is paying smugglers to get into China and enjoy the fruits of the revolution.
Too lazy to create a sig...
At least the chinese goverment is not hypocrite:-t they say openly what they are going to do.
Remember echelon? Sure, the message passes through (an act feigning freedom of information) but then those people who used certain keywords inexplicably find themselves on government blacklists. Or rather; they DO NOT find themselves there:- such blacklists are not public.
With the government telling you what they're gonna do you can at least take precautions.
- "They misunderestimated me."
this gal looks like she would be pissed if she lost one SMS text.
The whole Ap article here.
My typical text message is "Hi Sweetheart I miss you. I watered the plants. The cats are being weird." Cost about 10 cents, a phone call to do the same thing costs 25 or more cents. We use pre-paid Virgin Mobile. If I have to leave a phone number to have her call someone she doesn't have to dig for a pen and paper. This is mostly about 98% of all non business texting.
If China thinks it needs to monitor and censor this kind of crap it really shows how fearful the oligarchy is of loosing it's grip. It's going to spend a lot of time and effort staring at white noise.
If you don't like what I write don't be a CS and mod it down. Refute it.
Yea I can't spell. So what is your point?
Let me laugh.
As a Finnish person, USA seems to be everything else than free. Software patents, lawsuits all over about very stupid things (things that you would be laugh out of court if you'd try something like that in Finland). Showing poops in TV causes horrible media-mess how horrible that is and so on. I'd call America land of hypocrisy rather than land of freedom. Proud to NOT to be American.
This is the problem, in the US or UK for example the government could never impose a law like that but if they just word it slightly differently they could just about sneak it in. How about requiring phone companies to keep a recording of their customers last few calls and messages for say 1 hour, if theres a 'major terrorist attack' these calls could be quickly accessed by the police based on the call locations and maybe even voice recognition? it would only be a slippery slope to exend that to 24 hours and more and redefine 'major terrorist attack'. I dont think we realise quite how free we have it by being able to talk (reasonably) freely but we have to stop pig-fucking politicians who are after our rights for their financial and/or crazy fundamentalist gain, let this be a lession for us to try harder to keep our freedoms.
Not to mention this system will be broken within hours - rot13, different languages, weird txt-codes - there are a million ways to get round a dumb filter.
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I was living in China recently and sometimes came across articles like this one on Slashdot the moment they broke out. Sure enough, soon the Slashdot servers were unreachable and the site was blocked. This blocking would go on for a few days or sometimes longer. I could still find the offensive articles in the server after the site was unblocked. But it seems there is some agency responsible for monitoring sites and blocking them the moment there's trouble. I would suggest that editors be aware of this and carefully consider the wording of headlines and articles, not to provide censorship, but to avoid sounding unnessicarily inflammatory.
Just like Cisco and Yahoo helped with custom firmware and consulting services to give the PRC government the tools to oppress her people online, other American companies will bend over backwards to help with this. If there is any justice, the senior executives and people in the field who assist with these projects will be tried for crimes against humanity and hanged.
I certainly wish we didn't have the Patriot act, but what are the alternatives? Citizen vigilance, or martial law. That's about it. How many terrorists have you caught today? Didn't think so.
James Woods (the actor) identified 9/11 hijackers on a flight they were using as a dry run. He got the information to authorities, who did nothing about it. (The link tries to spin this as a "Bush knew" conspiracy, but it's far more likely to be typical bureaucratic inertia and incompetence). Thanks to citizen vigilance, we had the information we needed to stop 9/11 without invasive laws like the Patriot Act.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
I share these views, at least in part. As a European I cannot see why the USA still call themselves the "land of the free". With something like the Patriot Act in effect I wouldn't call a country free anymore. Maybe your threshold is lower, by for me the USA have crossed the line between an acceptably free country and one that isn't.
But maybe America is not about freedom anymore but instead about keeping it's role as the world's only superpower, which is slowly withering away with Europe and China gaining strength and self-confidence.
Concerning "Proud not to be an American": I'm not proud, but I'm happy. Wouldn't want to live over there now.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Poor China, they have not yet learned the power of saying all oppressive government action is being done to "protect children." I realize they don't like to follow in the stead of America, but they are looking really bad by not doing so here. For example:
From the article:
The official Xinhua News Agency said the campaign was aimed at cleaning up "pornographic, obscene and fraudulent" phone messages that have "infiltrated short messaging content."
Sounds evil and Orwellian right? Now read this:
The official Xinhua News Agency said the campaign was aimed at protecting children from "pornographic, obscene and fraudulent" phone messages that have "infiltrated short messaging content."
Wow that sounds nice! What type of person, other than an evil child-molesting pedophile, could possibly be against that? Nobody, not in the US and not in China. I hope Beijing reads this message and takes my advice, as I would hate to see any oppressive government look worse than it has to. Yes, indeed. A totalitarian regime can get away with damn near anything by saying its merely protecting the children from it.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.