global voices, one world

Q: Others have mentioned that the hapharzardness of blogging censorship seems to be one of its strengths.  What do the panelists think of this haphazardness–is it a weakness or in fact a strength?

RM: In short, yes. The fact that the lines are not clear certainly does make censorship more effective–it can have a chilling effect on users trying to post elsewhere, or cause companies to overcompensate based on directives they receive from state council and other departments are generally vague.  Companies therefore err on the side of caution, leading users to do the same.

On the other hand, some bloggers are very active (posting to multiple blogs) and determined, using these inconsistencies to their advantage.  Clever and educated bloggers know the weak points or incompetencies that they can use to their advantage, but the general public does not.

Another audience member concurs, saying that he or his friends also post to multiple blogs.

Q: For David Lyons and the use of 2nd generation ID cards – for the example you gave about having discovered a fake 2G card, do you know if the cards are scanned with RFIDs?  Or examples of backward engineering?  

Second, it’s easy to use fake ID numbers at Internet cafes.  Are you referring to that type of system?

DL: First Q – the article he read about the ID card made no mention of scanning the card.  He’s seen no examples of making a full fake RFID card.  Second Q – many institutions are using IC (not ID) cards that may or may not take information or authenticate; he’s not familiar with those cases, but that would be an example of making it more difficult for folks to anonymously use internet cafes.

Q: On circumvention – what is the federal financing of the circumvention project?  Are there limitations on one country’s financing that alter practices of another?  Does one state’s financing work to undermine or alter the legal systems of another state, as applied to circumvention?

EZ: Major sponsors of circumvention efforts have historically been gov’t broadcasters.  Generally speaking, sites like the Voice of America and BBC tend to be blocked; in some sense, this is no different from propaganda efforts in the past.  But one note is that because of the age of the Internet, Internet tools are rarely single-purposed.  The multifunctional tools change the dynamic somewhat with the relationship with other governments.

Q: Basic protections of a Chinese citizen changes the degree to which a system might be benign.  To what extent will different legal systems in other countries come into play when comparing different countries’ surveillance technologies?

DL: To a great degree. The Chinese government does seem to be making more noise about privacy; one also needs a population that’s aware of those issues.  In the US and UK, we started to have real scares about privacy in the 1960s/70s; in contrast, the Chinese are just starting to experience this, so we may see more of an impact–more Chinese citizens with more robust opinions about what all of this data aggregation means and what should be done about it.