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OT: China spying on Internet use in hotels

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Jul 30, 2008, 3:57:20 AM7/30/08
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_go_co/china_spying

Senator: China spying on Internet use in hotels
By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 29


WASHINGTON - Foreign-owned hotels in China face the prospect of "severe
retaliation" if they refuse to install government software that can spy on
Internet use by hotel guests coming to watch the summer Olympic games, a U.S.
lawmaker said Tuesday.


Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., produced a translated version of a document from
China's Public Security Bureau that requires hotels to use the monitoring
equipment.

"These hotels are justifiably outraged by this order, which puts them in the
awkward position of having to craft pop-up messages explaining to their
customers that their Web history, communications, searches and key strokes are
being spied on by the Chinese government," Brownback said at a news
conference.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond
to a request for comment.

Brownback said several international hotel chains confirmed receiving the
order from China's Public Security Bureau. The hotels are in a bind, he said,
because they don't want to comply with the order, but also don't want to
jeopardize their investment of millions of dollars to expand their businesses
in China. The hotel chains that forwarded the order to Brownback are declining
to reveal their identities for fear of reprisal.

Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department issued a fact sheet warning
travelers attending the Olympic games that "they have no reasonable
expectation of privacy in public or private locations" in China.

"All hotel rooms and offices are considered to be subject to on-site or remote
technical monitoring at all times," the agency states.

The Public Security Bureau order threatens that failure to comply could result
in financial penalties, suspending access to the Internet or the loss of a
license to operate a hotel in China.

"If you were a human rights advocate, if you're a journalist, you're in room
1251 of a hotel, anything that you use, sending out over the Internet is
monitored in real time by the Chinese Public Security bureau," Brownback said.
"That's not right. It's not in the Olympic spirit."

Brownback and other lawmakers have repeatedly denounced China's record of
human rights abuses and asked President Bush not to attend the Olympic opening
ceremonies in Beijing.

Brownback was introducing a resolution in the Senate on Tuesday that urges
China to reverse its actions.


2008 The Associated Press.
2008 Yahoo! Inc.

z1

unread,
Jul 31, 2008, 6:06:55 AM7/31/08
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- wrote:
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_go_co/china_spying
>
> Senator: China spying on Internet use in hotels

what else would you expect from a communist government?
China is not an open society and until it becomes a recognisable
democracy we can forget pretending otherwise.
So spare us this 'shock and horror' crap.

-

unread,
Jul 31, 2008, 1:46:23 PM7/31/08
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> "-" wrote:
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_go_co/china_spying
>> Senator: China spying on Internet use in hotels

z1 <z...@127.0.0.1> wrote:
> what else would you expect from a communist government?


What does this mean, that China is "a communist government" ?
That they treat foreign athletes better than their own people?

> China is not an open society and until it becomes a recognisable
> democracy we can forget pretending otherwise.


China doesn't need to be an open society. We're going
to expose pollution in China for what it is right here and now.

> So spare us this 'shock and horror' crap.


Nobody is surprised about anything in China these days.
It's very predictable and to be expected. The purpose of "news"
about China is to remind everybody that things aren't changing.

- regards
- jb

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richard

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Jul 31, 2008, 7:06:21 PM7/31/08
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Well, laptops taken into the USA are subject to inspection by the Immigration authorities.

Some companies, at least, require their employees not to have confidential information on laptops when they enter the USA.

-

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Aug 1, 2008, 2:17:29 AM8/1/08
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richard <mullens-...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Well, laptops taken into the USA are subject to inspection by
> the Immigration authorities. Some companies, at least, require
> their employees not to have confidential information on laptops
> when they enter the USA.


It's bad practice to transport confidential information via
laptop courier. As for its occasional "necessity" perhaps the
immigration authorities have never heard of "file coding" --
a procedure distinguished from "eye-catching encryption" --
whereby one innocent-looking block of computer-generated
text actually disguises within it a coded subtext which is the
real message. Why not just stuff it to the web and download
it later? Oh, I'm sorry ... this is already being done, which
might explain the indecipherable hits on "google" searches.

Better get wise, homeland security. And those voters who
elected politicians who enacted homeland security had better
get wiser.

- regards
- jb

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