Cellphone info tests government's data security
- Source: Global Times
- [22:42 September 09 2010]
- Comments
Illustration: Liu Rui
By Iain Mills
China's rapid social and economic development is introducing new and complex challenges for policy makers and the Chinese people.
One area in which new moral, ideological and practical issues are almost constantly being thrown up is the development of civil liberties as technological levels rise in China.
Because China has been a latestarter in the digital revolution, we have not yet seen the kind of saturation of surveillance and information gathering mechanisms which have become commonplace in other large economies.
This gives cause for optimism that China can learn from the mistakes and transgressions of other governments when managing the enhanced potential for personal data collection o ered by new technologies.
For example, the average person in London is captured on surveillance cameras over 300 times per day. In the US, meanwhile, legislation pushed through as part of the "War on Terror" has given government unprecedented access to personal records and information. Currently, surveillance cameras remain relatively scarce in Beijing.
Furthermore, the prevalence of a "cash society" and non-digital databases means Chinese politicians and large corporations do not yet have the kind of detailed dossiers about individuals which have become the norm in the West.
However, as national development has continued, the expansion of the Internet, credit card usage, cellphones and other "data footprint" devices means that modern Chinese now leave a considerable paper trail from their daily lives.
With various parties - from government agencies to marketing companies - keen to make use of this data, China now faces the challenge of evolving a new civil liberty agenda befi tting modern society.
The Chinese government has required all those who use Internet cafes to provide their identifi cation number before going online.
More recently, it announced that anybody purchasing a cellphone SIM card must comply with a similar regulation. This policy clearly offers potential benefi ts in terms of controlling and regulating cellphone usage.
