http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/05/chinas-all-seeing-eye
An eye opening(no pun intended) article about the rise of a technological police state in China. However, it's implications affect more than just chinese political dissidents.
Many of the companies that are supplying a wealth of technology to China are U.S. based companies, in clear vilation of reguations set up after the Tiananmen Square massacre to ban businesses from supplying China's government with tools that can be used for political opression.
L-1 is such a company, supplying a chinese business with facial recognition technology that can find a face match in a database of over a million faces with far more accuracy than others, and in about a second.
At the end of the article, the journalist ends it with this paragraph:
Quote:
"When I leave China, I feel a powerful relief: I have escaped. I am home safe. But the feeling starts to fade as soon as I get to the customs line at JFK, watching hundreds of visitors line up to have their pictures taken and fingers scanned. In the terminal, someone hands me a brochure for "Fly Clear." All I need to do is have my fingerprints and irises scanned, and I can get a Clear card with a biometric chip that will let me sail through security. Later, I look it up: The company providing the technology is L-1"'
It's obvious what the implications are; This is a growing industry. If these companies are willing to sell technologies to China, knowing full well what they will be used for, what's in store for citizens of the United States of America? Already many of our fundamental rights have been stripped away, thanks to the "War on Terror" and the Patriot Act. Imagine when there are literally dozens of security cameras on every block of every major city in America. When all of these cameras are liked and centralized... when all your records can be synced to one database where your personal information is stored.. from video camera feeds, to credit card records, even web access information, and much more. This is what China has been aiming to do, what it mostly already has done. And just like all other products made in China, "it is ready for export."
The article is rather long, but it has a wealth of information. It makes a far stronger case than I do, but it is worth the time to read and see where our future more than likely lies.
I wont even bother with a 1984 quote, reality has become so much like it that it's a fucking cliche to do so.
