Big Brother will watch you

[Bert Vierstra]

Hi,

just read in a Dutch online newspaper that Indonesia is going to watch the internet users.

Monitored will be when and where people visit the internet, what sites they visit.

It is to prevent credit card fraud etc.

No personal information will be recorded, but if criminal activity is seen, the details will be handed to the authorities....

:shock:

For those who speak Dutch:

http://www.nu.nl/news/1006624/50/Indone ... ouden.html

[Roy]

"It is to prevent credit card fraud etc."

No it isn't, it's compliance to the new anti-pornography law. Police in Java have already started raiding high schools and checking cell phones for pornography. The funny thing is, twice as many girls were found with hand phones containing this "material" as boys! Don’t you and Dewi watch Indonesian news or read Indonesian newspapers?

[Bert Vierstra]

It is according the Dutch News.

Yes Dewi heard about this handphone raids.

I think this is something different.

A kind of Patriot Act. ;)

Anyway I think its a bad development.

Its ok to go after the criminals, but just listen in to all to find something, hmmmmm

Everywhere in Europe police is quite successful in finding sexual perpetrators by using the internet....

But its by research and active approach.

Bu then, the Dutch arcticle is very brief.

Maybe you have read about it somewhere?

No it isn't, it's compliance to the new anti-pornography law.

Wrong. The bill is still in its draft stage and has been for the last ten years. Who knows if it will ever see the light of day?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00373.html

From the US Department of State - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, March 2007

2002.....In November , the Ministry of Information issued a decree creating an agency aimed at preventing online crime among local users. Under the decree, Internet cafes are required to provide the identities of Internet users to the agency on a monthly basis. The Ministry of Communication and Information denied that this agency would monitor online content. Human rights NGOs formed a team to monitor implementation of the decree.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78774.htm

I think this is just one of those half hearted efforts to appease the more wowserish segments of the Indonesian legislature. And anyway it's too expensive and too cumbersome to implement in any effective way. China is pouring untold untold resources into trying to do it with mixed results.

In any case it was decreed some years ago and hasn't really had any impact. I would be surpised if there was all that much credit card fraud as well. Most overseas companies throw any internet orders originating from Indonesia straight into the bin.

Maybe the Dutch report is about something totally new but no other news agency seems to have picked it up. I wouldn't worry.

[macupblue]

When i was young i still remember about Georg Orwells 1984 and we are all smiling about what is happend in the future. Now it is 2007 and time to smile againe about the trend to controll mobiles and internet.ok lets go back to 1984

[Roy]

Yes Allan, I am well aware that the new (first draft made last year) anti-pornography bill has not been passed, but that seems to not hinder some from taking action anyway. I guess for some, the actual passing of the bill is just a formality.

This is in today’s news:

“JAKARTA (JP): Editor of Playboy Indonesia Erwin Arnada faces two-year imprisonment for violating moral norm by publishing porn pictures and articles.”

Full story:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailtop ... 904&irec=0

“JAKARTA (JP): Editor of Playboy Indonesia Erwin Arnada faces two-year imprisonment for violating moral norm by publishing porn pictures and articles.”

He wasn't charged under the proposed anti-pornography bill. Nor can police take action on under a law that doesn't exist yet. There are existing Indonesian laws covering pornography.

[Roy]

My point Allan is that I don’t believe the monitoring of internet use by the government has anything to do with credit card fraud, but is rather to monitor pornography site access by Indonesian internet users.

By the way, from the news I read and watch and read every day, the opinion is that some revised version of this bill is expected to be signed in as law, and quite soon, meaning as early as this Summer.

There is a conservative movement afoot here in Indonesia, especially in the most recent years.

If the majority likes to look at pornography and just about every school kid has porno on their hand phones there's not much chance of the conservative movement succeeding in any real sense. Time will tell.

In any case, as I have said a few times already on this forum, internet monitoring doesn't work for something the majority want. After all pornography is one of the main drivers of internet development and that's because so many people want it. Including Indonesians.