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China demands new PCs carry spyware
ZDNet ^ | June 8, 2009 @ 8:38 AM | Richard Koman

Posted on 06/08/2009 12:13:00 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

There comes a time when despite the allure of the market, Western industry should band together and turn its back on China. A time when the computer and Internet industry realizes that the censorship-and-repression tax the government is intent on levying is too high a price to pay.

Is this, at long last, that moment? Well, it’s doubtful. But it should be.

Starting July 1, computers sold in China must include government-provided spyware that blocks pornography and political dissent from Chinese citizens’ view, The New York Times reports, following up a Wall Street Journal report.

Called “Green Dam” — green being a foil to the yellow smut of pornography — the software is designed to filter out sexually explicit images and words, according to the company that designed it. Computer experts, however, warn that once installed, the software could be directed to block all manner of content or allow the government to monitor Internet use and collect personal information.

PC makers are said to be irritated with the new rules but presumably not enough to buck the government. The major irritation seems to be that July 1 isn’t enough time to add the software to massive production lines.

(Excerpt) Read more at government.zdnet.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: internet; privacy; spyware
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I imagine all the other suggestions would be also.


21 posted on 06/08/2009 1:10:44 PM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to...otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; All
Google: Tiananmen? Never Happened!
22 posted on 06/08/2009 1:11:53 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: bgill
No schist, blocked “rock?” Gneiss.
23 posted on 06/08/2009 1:14:18 PM PDT by Aevery_Freeman (Our Last Best Hope: REPEAL THE 16th AMENDMENT!)
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To: bgill
No schist, blocked “rock?” Gneiss.
24 posted on 06/08/2009 1:14:30 PM PDT by Aevery_Freeman (Our Last Best Hope: REPEAL THE 16th AMENDMENT!)
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To: AFreeBird

And probably any computer found on the net that doesn’t give a ping back from the spyware will get the owner a stint in a reeducation camp.


25 posted on 06/08/2009 1:18:21 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat

Good point.


26 posted on 06/08/2009 1:29:19 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I would presume that it would be illegal to do that.

Just about anything the government doesn't explicitly permit is illegal in China. Enforcement, however, is lax - to say the least. If they enforced every law on their books, they'd probably have an armed revolt on their hands.

27 posted on 06/08/2009 1:41:48 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: skully
or better yet, write a program(virus), that would disable the spyware, and allow the Chinese user to bypass these restrictions. China's a huge market, think of the money to made. The trick would be to get the program on the Chinese market, under the noses of their Commie overlords.

You'd sell exactly one copy of it. After that, it'd explode across the pirate/reverse engineering gray market there. The Chinese will find ways around this nonsense.

28 posted on 06/08/2009 3:47:30 PM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
I don't see why they would need spyware if they can just control the server connections and block offensive/politically unfavorable sites *unless* they want to be able to activate your webcam without your knowledge to spy on you.

You're on the right track but not thinking widely enough. What they want is for "The Authorities" to be able to access your system to perform a host of surreptitious activities that include little things like poisoning users hosts file to steer them away from proxies, keylog login codes to ... well anything but I imagine counter-government websites would be of particular interest, scan documents for frequent occurances of interesting phrases such as "Free Tibet" "Dalai lama" especially in proximity to "Demonstration", and bigger things such as installing root level worms to further enhance their capabilities. Having the capability to install software surreptitiously for instance means that they could set up a nationwide bot-net that would be staggering in its DDoS capability. I mean we're talking serious weapon-grade capability here.

The possibilities of what they can do are by and large limited only by the government's imagination.

29 posted on 06/08/2009 3:58:28 PM PDT by MichiganMan (Oprah: Commercial Beef Agriculture=Bad, Commercial Chicken Agriculture=Good...Wait, WTF???)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Coming to a formerly-free nation near you.


30 posted on 06/08/2009 4:29:25 PM PDT by Mygirlsmom
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To: DieHard the Hunter; E. Pluribus Unum
I wonder if you could install a virtual machine to bypass the spyware while leaving it intact and functioning so the authorities can’t catch you.

If I lived in China I’d just decline to upgrade my hardware. I still got a 386 upstairs doing e-mail and basic stuff with 1994-vintage software. Works fine.

Exactly. Whatever they want to stop, the upstream end of the ISP connection would be a much better choice. OTOH, if tyrant commies are technical retards, that's not such a bad thing.

Ooh, here's a scary thought: What if this is all just cover for Dell, HP, etc, to start putting this crap on all OUR machines "so they won't have to make two versions"? Not that they don't already (Windows).

31 posted on 06/08/2009 5:39:02 PM PDT by Still Thinking (If ignorance is bliss, liberals must be ecstatic!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
I don't see why they would need spyware if they can just control the server connections and block offensive/politically unfavorable sites *unless* they want to be able to activate your webcam without your knowledge to spy on you.

They'd better have start planning to override the electrical tape, then.

32 posted on 06/08/2009 5:42:15 PM PDT by Still Thinking (If ignorance is bliss, liberals must be ecstatic!)
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To: Zhang Fei

Precisely! I swear, the Chinese government does this just to “make a good show”; if anyone should know about the level of software counterfeiting, it should be the Chinese government!

I bet you can get the OS wiped and re-installed even at the neighborhood Suning store!


33 posted on 06/08/2009 6:47:11 PM PDT by PugetSoundSoldier (Indignation over the sting of truth is the defense of the indefensible)
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To: PugetSoundSoldier
I bet you can get the OS wiped and re-installed even at the neighborhood Suning store!

My experience with Chinese consumer electronics stores is that they're about as knowledgeable as the sales people in Best Buy or the late Circuit City - i.e. they're clueless. To do an OS install, I suspect the local PC mall or computer repair store is the best bet.

34 posted on 06/08/2009 7:32:16 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: ShadowAce
I am pretty sure that Chinese are already installing spywares and other malwares into PC's produced in China. They don't just advertise it.

All your PC's are monitored by thousands of worker ants at Chinese state security organizations.

35 posted on 06/08/2009 9:48:14 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (LUV DIC -- L,U,V-shaped recession, Depression, Inflation, Collapse)
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To: bgill; Paleo Conservative
The school has blocking software so I can’t log on to find out when the local rock hunting club meets at the church. Apparently, “rock” is tagged as porn. Talk about some hard core cleavage pics there!

Oh, how soft....the pearly luster....the cleavage.....









36 posted on 06/09/2009 6:36:45 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: Gondring; bgill
Oh, how soft....the pearly luster....the cleavage.....

Don't forget the twinning.

37 posted on 06/09/2009 6:53:16 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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