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Chinese Schools Are Using 'Smart Uniforms' To Track Their Students' Locations (theverge.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the watching-your-clothes dept.

"It's as dystopian as it sounds," opines The Verge: Chinese schools are now tracking the exact location of their students using chip-equipped "smart uniforms" in order to encourage better attendance rates, according to a report from state-run newspaper The Global Times. Each uniform has two chips in the shoulders which are used to track when and where the students enter or exit the school, with an added dose of facial recognition software at the entrances to make sure that the right student is wearing the right outfit (so you can't just have your friend, say, wear an extra shirt while you go off and play hooky). Try to leave during school hours? An alarm will go off....

There are additional features, too, according to a report from The Epoch Times: the chips can apparently detect when a student has fallen asleep in class, and allow students to make payments (using additional facial or fingerprint recognition to confirm the purchase). The uniforms are being used in 10 schools in China's Guizhou Province region, and apparently have been in use for some time -- according to Lin Zongwu, principal of No. 11 School of Renhuai, over 800 students in his school have been wearing the smart uniforms since 2016.

7 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Next step is by bobstreo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    mandatory tracking implants.

    No implant? No food, no travel.

    If/when you're detected, you'll probably be detained at a "police" station until you're moved to a nice relocation site under a death sentence.

  2. Re:A real working slippery slope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why stop there, shock collars for the win! If you're going to control your populous, you can't stop at half-ass.

  3. Scary as f*ck ... by Qbertino · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... the way the Chinese are taking the concept of an orwellian state further to unseen depths on a biweekly basis, is it not?

    Folks we're going to be in some super-bizarre global Cyberpunk society in 2 decades from now if this catches on globally and it ain't going to be half as cool as in a roleplaying game, a Stevenson/Gibson novel or some bladerunner movie sequel - it will just plain suck, big time. I don't want this and neither do you. Talk to you folks about this, we are the opinion leaders when it comes to IT and we need to wake up as many as possible before it's too late.

    My 2 eurocents.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:Scary as f*ck ... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I guess this is like 1984 as seen from the Eastasian point of view... except it’s really happening.

      Man, this is scary stuff.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Scary as f*ck ... by Falos · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I know you're uncomfortable with our forward progress, but you need to think of the

      *shuffles flash cards*

      "Terrorists."

    3. Re:Scary as f*ck ... by Solandri · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's a huge difference between "can do something you couldn't do before, but it requires you to have a tracking device" and "are no longer allowed to do something you used to be able to do freely before, unless you have tracking devices."

      The former is an expansion of your choices. You can eschew the new options if you don't like them, like I refuse to use Facebook.

      The latter is a reduction of your choices and freedom.

  4. Re:Must've been that one kid by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    More than one. Apparently about 30% of US citizens find authoritarianism pretty cool if it is presented right to them. Explains a lot. Not that the rest of the world is much better. Dark times.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.