I was particularly aghast at a recent NYT's article; China Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People.
Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.
Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.
Scary. Essentially, the State seeks to have a birth to death record of every citizen's activity. Before you say "that can't happen here", remember the US federal government's push towards a national ID card. How easily does this digital id then become a RFID tag implanted under the skin? No need to swipe it then. You'll be tracked as you move around the city. I hate to sound like an alarmist, but as any technologist will tell you, all of this is well within the capabilities of current technology. Note to self: renew ACLU membership.
