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China Adopts Controversial Cybersecurity Law; Experts Say It Will Hurt Businesses (techcrunch.com)
The Chinese government today passed new cybersecurity regulations that will put stringent new requirements on technology companies operating in the country. The proposed Cybersecurity Law comes with data localization, surveillance, and real-name requirements. From a TechCrunch report:The regulation would require instant messaging services and other internet companies to require users to register with their real names and personal information, and to censor content that is "prohibited." Real name policies restrict anonymity and can encourage self-censorship for online communication. The law also includes a requirement for data localization, which would force "critical information infrastructure operators" to store data within China's borders. According to Human Rights Watch, an advocacy organization that is opposing the legislation, the law does not include a clear definition of infrastructure operators, and many businesses could be lumped into the definition. "The law will effectively put China's Internet companies, and hundreds of millions of Internet users, under greater state control," said Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch's China director. HRW maintains that, while many of the regulations are not new, most were informal or only laid out in low-level law -- and implementing the measures on a broader level will lead to stricter enforcement.
Even if you think you have it... you don't.
China is just being more honest about what the USA already does behind the scenes. You think everything you do online isn't tracked by the NSA? Go back and reread the Snowden disclosures. You have no anonymity online, even when you are not using your real name or identity in any way, and are taking steps to guard your privacy. There are a vast amount of ways to de-anonymize you, and you have not guarded against all of them. You haven't even heard of all of them. The war was fought and was lost. Most people didn't care beause they were "not doing anything wrong".
The future of the internet is more and more tracking of the behavior of the entire population of the world, more and more requirements to sign in with your real world identity, because the ruling classes always want a way to take inconvenient people down. Inconvenient like MLK was inconvenient. You pop your head up, embarrass the ruling classes, and they have your entire life history to comb through.