China To Photograph All Internet Cafe Customers

Gwaihir the Windlord writes "Not only is the Great Firewall of China back up and running, but now if you visit an Internet cafe, your photo will be taken and your identity card scanned. And the friendly officers of the Cultural Law Enforcement Taskforce make those details, entered into a city-wide database, available at any other cafe. So much for the new levels of openness and transparency that the Olympics were supposed to usher in."

In other words China is where Italy was years ago

[itsme1234]

Quoting from http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/11/0512216&tid=158 [slashdot.org]

"CNN is reporting that a new Italian law requires that all businesses offering public internet access, such as web cafes, to identify and record all customers. While supporters of this law trumpet its anti-terrorism potential, still others see no such advantage and bemoan this invasion of personal privacy. 'They must be able, if necessary, to track the sites visited by their clients. [...]"

And yes, the law is pretty much alive and well. Also you can't stay anywhere in Italy unless they copy your passport and send it to the police. Free wifi providers (think Starbucks like) have been already fined/prosecuted. You can't get a prepaid SIM card in many European countries without showing your passport and in some cases your "registration" (i.e. the fact that you're a local resident with a "registered address").

Re:Hardly a Chinese issue

[MightyYar]

Even China's Tianamen Square atrocity has a western parallel with the USA's killing of Vietnam war protesters at Kent State University in 1970.

You don't see the difference between a protest getting out of hand and the siege of a city by an army? You know that the day after the Kent State shootings, 8 million college kids protested? How many people protested the day after Tienanmen Square? You know that Kent State was in no way a peaceful protest, but a full-on riot? Fires, property damage, people attacking fire fighters and later the national guard. Contrast this with people peacefully assembled in a square.

Re:Hardly a Chinese issue

[thermian]

Even China's Tianamen Square atrocity has a western parallel with the USA's killing of Vietnam war protesters at Kent State University in 1970.

Wrong, there has been, and continues to be, absolutely no attempt by the US government to disallow access to websites that mention the Kent State University incident.

Re:Hehe

[Chris Pimlott]

It's not hypocritical because the government and individual citizens are not the same thing. The government is endowed with great powers to control and regulate the lives of citizens, therefore it should be subject to higher standards and limitations to constraint abuses of those powers.

Re:Hardly a Chinese issue

[elnyka]

Your position is fucking retarded

1. The fact that the UK government records you whenever you go to a e-cafe does not constitute a high probability that something awful is going to happen to you. This is not the case in China. You can say publicly "screw the Queen" and sleep well at home. You say "screw the CP" and guess what's going to happen?
2. The fact that Tianamen Square MIGHT be seeing as parallel to the Kent State U' killings, that does not make them so. Kent State's was (and still is) an isolated incident. Tianamen Square was just the most widely known incident, a repetition of the status quo. The harassment and killing of individuals on the basis of political views and religious freedoms is systematic and endemic of China. I challenge you to mention one modern Western democratic nation where such harassment and killing is both systematic and endemic.

3. This moral relativism of yours is disgusting and pretty much immoral and impractical. If a nation or individual cannot denounce the crimes committed by another because of one's apparent imperfections, then we might as well embrace the idea that a serial pedophile rapist and the dude who ran a stop sign because he was stressed and pissed are equally immoral and wrong.

   That our current democratic nations incur in 1984'esque monitoring tactics and the fact that politically-motivated violent, murderous incidents have occurred in the past does not equate them to nations where such reprehensible activities are carried out frequently, endemically and systematically as a matter of policy.

   Likewise, it does not prevent the citizen's of the former from condemning the actions of the later. If you believe your nation is equally immoral, that's fine and dandy. Your position should be, in that case, to condemn both your nation and the nation in the greater moral wrong, not in going "meh, were are kinda like the same you know, so why telling them they are wrong, let's kumbaya while they screw people up more."

   Seriously, that's really weak dude.

Re:Hardly a Chinese issue

[br00tus]

In contrast, after Kent State, millions of college students across the US protested with no significant interference from the government.

Except those two students at Jackson State that were killed. Or the hundreds of students who were beaten, injured and hospitalized. Other than that, no significant interference from the government.

Re:openness and transparency

[idontgno]

With the right ID card [infoworld.com], they can.

Re:Ironic course, dontcha think?

[argiedot]

More power to you, Eagleman, the hypocrisy of these nations is quite clearly apparent. Also while everyone seems to think this is a horrible thing, how about you look at India? We've reached this level and passed it. Allow me to explain:

• In Mumbai, if you want to access a cyber-cafe, you will need a photocopy of your driver's licence or other photo-ID. You will also be required to sign over the photocopy. You will not be allowed to use the place otherwise, even if you show photo-ID. They require a copy.
• In Chennai, at one point of time they made it mandatory to photograph all cyber cafe users. It was also mandated that use of a cyber cafe computer must be traceable. Meaning they should be able to tell an investigating agency, which photographed guy used which computer. This died a quiet, unceremonious death, I think. I was never photographed.

And because everyone seems to be fighting China at the moment, you're missing their neighbours to the South West, us Indians. Things have changed for the worse in quite a few places. A law association in Lucknow took a resolution to not represent anyone who was suspected of terrorism. These lawyers assaulted two others who did represent suspects and showed irregularities in police reports. There are many things occurring in today's 'democracies' that are simply in violation of those countries' constitutions and international human rights laws and privacy guidelines.

Sure the Chinese are doing horrible things, but we are no angels, and if we mean what we say, we should take the beam out of our eyes first.