China plans to track cellphone users, sparking human rights concerns
China said it may begin tracking cellphone users in Beijing through location technology it hopes will help city authorities better manage traffic. But the announcement also sparked fresh concerns that the government may be using mobile technology to surveil its residents.
In an announcement, made through Beijing's Municipal People's Government Web site, the Chinese government said it would track 17 million cellphone users in Beijing through location technology to "publish real-time dynamic information to ease congestion and improve the efficiency of public travel."
Beijing is notorious for its traffic congestion. Last August, a 60-mile jam into the capital city lasted nine days. The Chinese government is also notorious for its firm grip on the flow of information in and out of the country. Authorities have tapped into e-mail accounts of foreign journalists and Democracy activists and censored certain Web sites in the nation.
"What happens when you start tracking cellphone users is that you maintain a constant history of what users are doing, their habits, who they associate with," said Joshua Gruenspecht, a cyber security fellow at the U.S.-based Center for Democracy and Technology.
"The government can then use that history against people and for human rights reasons, that can be very politically disturbing," he said.
In Beijing, 70 percent of residents have a cellphone run by China Mobile. In a statement, Li Guoguang, China's Science and Technology Commission Deputy Director of Social Development, said they could determine the location of users by the connection of a cellphone antenna to one of the multitude of base stations across the city. He said the country is still weighing the service and how to build a platform to collect and deliver information.
Gruenspecht said any government or cellphone company can track its users. By simply connecting to a cell tower or through other location-based services such as global positioning systems, a mobile user’s whereabouts can be pinpointed even to a city block.
But the announcement by the Chinese government is the first he has heard of a nation using location services to comprehensively track its users. And the announcement comes amid heightened awareness over the use of mobile devices and Internet communications sites such as Facebook and Twitter to organize and fuel civil protests against the governments of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.
But those technologies have also served to harm activists and protestors, some civil rights groups say. Facebook's real name policy puts people at risk for retaliation by governments, some say.
In a statement, Nizar Zakka, the Secretary General of IJMA3, the Arab communications technology regulatory group, urged social media companies to develop protective measures for social media users:
"Social media had demonstrated its potential, on the streets of Tehran, Cairo and elsewhere, to serve as an agent for change and virtuous development," Zakka said, according to reports. "However, as its power becomes more apparent, the desire of governments to use this very tool of free expression to suppress dissent increases accordingly. These days, social media is also being used in order to monitor, track, and ultimately muzzle the very activists whose activities it most supports."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/trad/uk/2011/03/110304_press_review.shtml
BBC 中文網
北京手機跟蹤
《泰晤士報》報道說，北京正在考慮通過電腦，以改善交通為名，跟蹤北京所有使用手機者的行蹤，以此監控和阻止遊行抗議活動。
報道稱，根據北京市科委計劃建立的「手機定位市民出行」計劃，北京將以1700萬手機用戶數據為基礎，建立「北京市市民出行動態信息平台」，精準掌握市民的行蹤規律。
報道援引北京市科委官員李國光的表態稱，這是為政府部門規劃交通布局、人口管理服務，而非侵入個人隱私。
但報道也援引反對這一計劃的北京大學無線電通訊專業的教授陳德榮（音譯）的話說，這一計劃中的平台可以 允許警察為了安全原因監控一些人的行蹤，但和監測改善交通聯繫在一起是「牛頭馬嘴」，毫無聯繫，因為改善交通不需要定位每個人的行蹤，交通要道的攝像頭就 足以起到監控交通的作用。
報道以及就此發表的評論文章說，北京當局對中東「茉莉花革命」十分不安，因為不了解人民的態度而疑神疑鬼，擔心民主浪潮影響到中國，這一平台可以用來摧毀任何集會和遊行示威活動。
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