Mon

Aug 13
2007

Brady Forrest

Brady Forrest

Tracking Citizens in China

The New York Times is reporting that China is deploying multiple methods to track its citizens. In addition to a large number of surveillance cameras in Southern China, the province of Shenzhen is giving its citizens ID cards that store large amounts of information about them.

Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.

Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.

It's not just citizens that are being tracked. Chinese police officers are tracked realtime and the police department can watch its officers on a map. In theory it is to prevent crime (and I am sure this tech will help with that regard), but it is also being done to keep track of a now affluent citizenry. Scary.

I wonder what else the province leadership are using to keep track of their citizens. Obviously realtime is a goal. Cellphones? Unreported RFID chips? It seems like Shenzhen is just a test, perhaps realtime tracking will happen in future locations.


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Comments: 13

  Adam Rakunas [08.13.07 08:40 AM]

Web surfing, too. Someone's got to be keeping track of what people are watching in net cafes.

  ukweatherman [08.13.07 09:07 AM]

well there trying to bring in id cards in the uk, passports are now getting chips and we have the most cctv cameras in the world,

china are just catching up! lol

cheers gordon brown

  Jurgen Beck [08.13.07 09:26 AM]

This may sound ludicrous, but there is a 2000 year old manuscript that foretold of this stuff. We have not seen the full implementation of it yet, but this stuff will eventually end up as bio-embedded technology in our bodies, and all in the name of fighting crime. Want to laugh it off? Then there is this reminder: This manuscript is the most accurate there has ever been in terms of predictions and outlook on the future. Look it up in Revelation 13:11-18. Your post is perfect proof of this trend.

  Diane [08.13.07 09:57 AM]

Absolutely inevitable in our grand-childrens future. Thank god I'll be gone.

  Chris [08.13.07 10:04 AM]

Web surfing has always been checked in China. You see, the ISPs are "cooperating" with the officials in order to get themselves out of any possible troubles. Wikipedia was blocked for a couple times and I am not sure whether it is still blocked for the mainlanders or not.
Back to the topic, it's quite easy to track the citizens by using the data chip. E.g. if the card can be used on transportations, the government will have a record of an individual of where, when and how he traveled over a certain time period.

  Paul B [08.13.07 01:36 PM]

I continue to have the feeling that China and similar venues are providing the "proof of concept" for the broader world. That includes "Wester democracies".

  jeanetteDCA [08.13.07 02:11 PM]

JUST ASK HP -
Read about this HP China lab developing face recognition for them and trying to call it "printer technology"

http://tinyurl.com/2m9jpp

Since the only significant U.S. R&D money is going offshore it should not be suprising that US companies like HP are competely in bed with the chinese secret police.

jeanetteDCA

  Stoicho [08.13.07 02:32 PM]

We have to blame Holywood. The Movie is "Code 46", the city is Shanghai!

  Ajeet Khurana [08.13.07 04:08 PM]

This is really scary. The urge to "control" is inevitable. But, technology has turned into a powerful monster that can ravage at its master's will.

Incidentally, in India, if you want to access a computer from a cybercafe, you must record your personal information and provide proof of identification.

Also, last month the Mumbai (earlier Bombay) police had blocked Orkut as some user posted derogatory remarks about a local politician. The police thought that this could lead to unrest.

At the very least these governments and other "authorities" should be sensitized to both -- technology and the rights of citizens.

  Jonix Konios [08.13.07 09:57 PM]

I was expecting this. Today is china, tomorrow is the rest of the world. In the future everyone will have chip in the body, without the need for a card. This is the kind of "dream" that i really don't like. Good bye privacy :(

  John [08.13.07 11:08 PM]

Shenzhen is not a province. It is a city in the south of Guangdong Province.

  UKThom [08.14.07 12:00 PM]

So THAT's what's been in all the tampered products from China these days...

  Diego Pino [08.21.07 10:53 AM]

As John said, Shenzhen is not a province but a large city in Southern China (Guangdong province), near Hong Kong (Shenzhen is the first mainland Chinese city you will find coming out from HK)

Although unknown to most westerns Shenzhen is the Chinese city with highest GDP per habitant and where almost all electronic gadgets and devices are produced nowadays in China, and by extension, in the whole world.

In the last 30 years, Shenzhen has grown at an outstanding high pace, turning from 300.000 inhabitants to nearly 10 millions. Part of this success was due to the fact that Shenzhen was one of the firsts Special Economic Zones in China. In the early 80s communist China wanted to try capitalism, so the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) devised these Special Economic Zones, pieces of land which operate under the principles of liberalism and free-trading. As China joined WTO back in 2003 the needs for SEZ have been questioned.

Traditionally, Shenzhen has been a place for Chinese officials to try new things, as we see with these new ID cards. No doubt if these IDs turned convenient for the Chinese government would be deploy to other parts in China, and maybe other countries. Time will tell...

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