Reports indicate that the Chinese government is planning to spy on its Olympic guests
Posted 07.30.2008 at 10:10 am
6 Comments
Beijing Swimming Center
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How do you say "Big Brother" in Chinese? Visitors to the Beijing Olympics need to be careful what they email (and what websites they peruse) according to Senator Sam Brownback, the senior Republican from Kansas. Based on hotel documents, Brownback alleges that the Chinese government has spent millions of dollars installing spy software in major hotel chains to monitor its guests' email and web surfing.
"The Chinese government has put in place a system to spy on and gather information about every guest at hotels where Olympic visitors are staying," said Brownback.
With blogging now allowed by the International Olympic Committee, the Chinese may have plenty to monitor.
It's just the latest example of the Chinese government keeping a close eye on the Olympics. Tickets to the opening ceremony are embedded with RFID tags that hold personal information intended to verify the identity of spectator, minimize scalping and keep away protestors.
[Via MSNBC]
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Isn't this invasion of provacy and what are they going to do with the data.
http://the.nerd.herd.group.googlepages.com/
Even if I could afford it. Why do you think I wouldnt go? Never trusted the Chinese gov't from the start, why would I now?
nerd.herd: Many people seem to be under the mistaken impression that privacy is a right. I don't believe there are many governments who treat it as such - Great Brittain has 4.2 million CCTV cameras by some estimates. The US monitors communications for any "suspicious" activity. China monitors visitors and citizens alike for anti-communist activity.
I would love to see a mass movement against the increasingly alarming privacy encroachments. Until a large number of citizens cry out in a united voice that they will not tolerate a nanny-state attitude we will continue down the path toward an orwellian society.
China has long monitored internet traffic from hotels and public places. From my direct dealing with this, I would conclude that much of it is very manual and labor intensive. It is not uncommon for monitored email to move very slowly.
I hope they are investing in more automated processes so those of us with nothing to hide can communicate more quickly.
China is a great country but not the US (I do love the US). They play by different rules. I would encourage anyone not to knock it (China) before they have tried it.
from Portland, OR
What does it matter if they spy on email? With all the pollution, you won't even be able to see your keyboard to type.
How is this any different from the "Patriot Act" in the US? So it's ok for the US to spy using wiretaps on phone and email, but it's suddenly taboo for another country to do it?
This is just another example of republican hypocrisy; do as we say, not as we do...