Olympic Tickets Contain Microchip With Your Data

OMNIpotusCOM writes "Tickets to the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies will contain a microchip with information about the ticket holder, including a photograph, passport details, addresses, e-mail, and telephone numbers. The stated intent is to keep troublemakers out of the 91,000-seat National Stadium so that they cannot cause disruptions while China is on world-wide television, but it brings up serious concerns for privacy and identity theft."

Comments

Well That's It

[camperdave]

Well, that's it then. I'm not going.

Re:Well That's It

[dreddnott]

Yeah, I was so going before this news came out. Totally unlike the PRC!

Re:Well That's It

[Porsche917K]

Sod the PRC. If it's been done once, I'd bet good money on exactly the same system being used in London in 2012, too.

Yay.

Oh the irony.

[mrbluze]

.. it brings up serious concerns for privacy and identity theft. Coming from a nation that brings up serious concerns for pretty much every other human right I can think of, this comes as no surprise.

Re:Oh the irony.

[Brian Gordon]

How is this irony? How can you possibly go to China and not expect these sort of massive privacy/rights violations?

Re:Oh the irony.

[mrbluze]

ow can you possibly go to China and not expect these sort of massive privacy/rights violations? Because for a second people might be thinking China might at least try to be nice for a change, at least to foreigners with whom they might want to do business.

Re:Oh the irony.

[mrbluze]

And the question still remains, how is that irony? There is an incongruity or discordance between what a speaker or a writer says and what he or she means. China is touting itself as a country that is reforming and ever more foreigner-friendly, yet this is what happens. Ok, it's not surprising, but it's still ironic. That good enough for you?

Scalpers?

[mrbluze]

Chinese authorities initially considered tying all 6.8 million tickets to individuals .. and then it says..

The plan [tried once in Germany] was aimed at deterring scalpers... Why don't they just attach them to people's scalps. Scalpers can then go about their business in the traditional fashion, possibly as was once practiced at the original Olympics thousands of years ago.

Just wait this is only the first

[arthurpaliden]

Actually the real scarry thing is that if it works there then we are sure to see it used in other venues where security is a consern such as the World Cup (Soccer).

Re:Just wait this is only the first

[Marillion]

They already did .... http://www.pcworld.com/ and http://networks.silicon.com/

Counterfeiting was the public reasoning for the RFID chips in the 2006 World Cup tickets.

I don't see the problem

[Phantombrain]

I don't see the problem with this. It's not like China has ever has taken advantage of technology to control people there. There aren't any stories of people being arrested just for disagreeing with the government. There aren't any human rights issues in China.

Tibet

[Anonymous Coward]

>> so that they cannot cause disruptions while China is on world-wide television

So much for free Tibet... with every purchase.

cruise

[overcaffein8d]

i went on a cruise and having photos seems quite regular for regulating getting on and off the boat. i can understand China's point of view of trying to keep out bad people. though it raises moral concerns, don't forget that there's a big chance for terrorism--especially with the protests to china. i'm not saying that it's a good thing; i'm just playing the devil's advocate-- i don't want big brother either, unless it's in the hands that i voted for.

Re:Inevitable

[mrbluze]

So, while the natives are doing their sacrificial dance around the flame and we sit in the big cauldron, we should remain informed and alert, fully aware of what's happening as the hairy guy in the funny hat puts the flaming torch at the base and we start enjoying a terminal hot bath, knowing full well that Tarzan will come and save us?

Life's no Hollywood movie. People DO get boiled in cauldrons and we ARE screwed unless we act. Being alert and informed isn't enough.

would this be unreasonable for a business?

[VoidEngineer]

Going on the premise that China is the worlds first mature fascist government, would these tickets be considered unreasonable if the Olympics were being sponsored by a corporation? What if ExxonMobil hosted the Olympics? Or Walmart? Or HSBC? Or General Electric? If any of these companies hosted a sporting event, would it be unreasonable for them, as a business, to track this data within the tickets? My thinking is that China is simply becoming more of a corporate entity than a nation (albeit, a corporation with a billion employees). It seems like these tickets reflect that concept. Agree? Disagree?

Those pesky troublemakers, eh?

[Attaturk]

The stated intent is to keep troublemakers out of the 91,000-seat National Statdium so that they cannot cause disruptions while China is on world-wide television, but it brings up serious concerns for privacy and identity theft.

I'd say it also brings up pretty serious concerns about the various definitions and interpretations of the word "troublemaker". Perspective is a wonderful thing - until they take it from you. ;)

Re:Inevitable

[MsGeek]

Look guys, certain things are inevitable.

I don't buy this.

They will eventually clone a human - somewhere in the world - regardless of laws.

Arguably this has already taken place. If you mean clone a human and implant the clone in a human womb, or else have some sort of artificial womb technology to bring the cloned embryo to term...that may take a while.

We will eventually have computer chips embedded under our skin - it will start with a way to track children, then a way to expedite purchases, then a way to hold critical medical info and so on.

Do this in the US and you will have a million zillion Christians up in arms. Literally. The "Left Behind" book series was a huge-ass bestseller in a country where most people don't read if they don't have to. This might happen elsewhere, like the PRC, Vladimir Putin's Russian Federation, Japan...in fact, my prediction is that it will happen first in Japan and it will be promoted as a youth trend. It will never happen in the US. It will probably not happen in Alberta, Canada. It will probably not happen in certain Central and South American countries. It will probably not happen in South Korea, which is almost as Christian-centric as the US is.

Nothing is inevitable except death and taxes. Period.

Uhm... Why?

[MaliciousSmurf]

If it's for one event, it strikes me that they could have a unique ID number for each ticket, and then just cross-reference that number with an external database. Methinks that'd take care of a lot of problems.

Really worse than the last one?

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Where Visa was a sponsor and you could only use a Visa card to buy tickets.

If they wanted to, they could have very easily tracked card number, and thereby person buying, with ticket info.

So What?

[IchBinEinPenguin]

Most of the visitors will already have an RFID passport on them.

China does not have to be nice.

[arthurpaliden]

So long as everyone wants to buy cheap stuff at WalMart, the foreigners will not care about the human rights record of China only that they saved 'all this money' buying stuff they do not need with money they do not have.

Re:China does not have to be nice.

[bm_luethke]

If you think it is only cheap stuff at wal-mart you may want to start checking your labels again.

There are many high dollar products crappily made in China and sold at whatever your favorite retail outlet happens to be.

I don't find wal-mart to be particularly worse than the vast majority of stores in terms of amount of crappy Chinese goods. The others, for whatever reason, make people feel good for paying more for the same crap they could have gotten for 20% less (and a different brand stuck on said products coming off the same assembly line with the same materials).

To find non-crap you not only have to be lucky enough to have a store locally that sales such items but also know enough about whatever you are purchasing to know what is and isn't crap.

In the end people purchasing crappy products made in china at a high price contribute more than people purchasing cheaply made items at a cheap price. The profit margin there is HUGE even when you take into account the extra money spent on advertisement to get people to hate the less expensive place to purchase it.

And, to note, one can very much find some quality items made in China - I have some cookware and cutlery that is quite good (and yes, I have several good kitchen knives - a few Henckel "s" grades and a Shun - but it is really hard to beat a Chinese high carbon steel cleaver and the hammered carbon steel woks are great).

Re:China does not have to be nice.

[vux984]

I don't find wal-mart to be particularly worse than the vast majority of stores in terms of amount of crappy Chinese goods. The others, for whatever reason, make people feel good for paying more for the same crap they could have gotten for 20% less (and a different brand stuck on said products coming off the same assembly line with the same materials).

Sometimes yes they are the same.

Sometimes the materials going in aren't quite the same quality. (using lower quality steel, or cheaper plastics, or whatever...)

Sometimes the goods coming out are held to lower standards. (ie stuff that would have been rejected for the 'premium brand' is good enough for the 'walmart brand'.

I recall film in particular was like this some years ago. The brand name stuff and the generic stuff was indeed made in the same factory on the same line from the same stuff. But QC on the brand name stuff was higher. Flaws in batches that didn't meet the brand's QC levels but were still 'ok' were sold under the generic brand.

Bottom line, knowing a product came from the same factory and even assembly line as product X means squat. It might be the same product. Or it might be highly inferior.

Re:China does not have to be nice.

[digitig]

There are many high dollar products crappily made in China and sold at whatever your favorite retail outlet happens to be. Not necessarily as crappily made. I once visited a clothing factory in China, and the factory floor was divided into two. On one side were the low-skill girls using poor quality sewing machines churning out the cheap stuff. When they got to a certain standard they were promoted to the other side of the shop floor, got a pay rise, used better quality (western!) sewing machines and got stricter quality control. There are differences, even in stuff coming out of the same factory.

Why bother with photos?

[BluBrick]

Westerners all look the same, anyway.

What's that? Ohh, you round-eyes got no sense of humour!

Re:Wrong Order

[Anonymous Coward]

Number 983186... Stop pretending to be number 24601 'Engelbot'. Now get back in line.

Re:Call me a skeptic, but

[Chuck Chunder]

Indeed, any male streakers should expect a torrent of penis enlargement emails.

If you are not a Chinese citizen...

[vigmeister]

I do not see why you would have a problem with this. As someone who entered the United States from a different country, when I paid to attend college, all my information is tracked by the government (through my college). Other privacy issues involve my phone calls being freely tapped into. In fact, something that inconveniences me (not a privacy issue) is people not being able to transfer money into my bank account online which marks me as a non-resident alien.

As an alien in this country, I am subjected to intrusion of privacy by a multitude of institutions that I do business with - The only way to avoid that is to "go under" and become an illegal immigrant.

I perfectly understand the need for this. I am an immigrant to the USA and if the society here (which has been nice enough to tolerate me) feels safer by having my life glimpsed at, I am OK with it. I strongly dislike it, but atleast they let me stay here eh?

What my college does with my privacy and what the Olympics committee of China does with a tourist's is not all that different.

I would however be mighty pissed if I were a Chinese citizen and subjected to this treatment. I truly feel sorry for them.

I am just pointing out that aliens in a country having their privacy violated is not unusual and as an alien I am not particularly bothered by China doing it to tourists.

Note: This is NOT an "I have nothing to hide" issue. It's more of "Thanks for letting me be in your house, you can watch me and I will be on my best behaviour"

Cheers!

Re:If you are not a Chinese citizen...

[pythonist]

You tell the foreign side of story. I will tell you from the Chinese side. As a Chinese, I don't see any problem neither. As long as I buy tickets using my credit card, my info is already there. Ticket contain my name in DB is not a problem at all. We can tolerate some level of privacy violation for safty reason, just as Americans can tolerate tight security check in airport. Check in Chinese airpot is like a joke before recently for Olympics but we dont' think it has anything to do with freedom. We simply don't need such security level before Olympics. Foreigners simply don't understand the way Chinese people do things --- we don't deem personal freedom in No.1 priority and there are many things more important to our value system such as family and social harmonious. PS. I'm new to writing here so If someone tell me how to paragraphing I will appreciate much.

And If I go to the US (rant/troll)

[aepervius]

I get finger printed, photographied, sometimes interrogated, paper-ed, belt & shoe stripped , and in future even technically stripped with some Tera-hertz waves. They can also snoop my laptop, require that I give my addresses where I live, and as far as I know, I have to have my passport ready at any time. The only difference I see, is that the chinese want to keep the same info on a stadium ticket and most probably in a database, whereas the US keep it in a database.Big. Effing. Deal. Sorry but you both suck for foreigner on privacy ground.