China Accused Of Putting Recording Devices In All Dual-Plate Hong Kong/China Cars

from the taking-spying-to-a-new-level dept

There's a fascinating report, via Slashdot, claiming that China has been installing spying devices on all "dual-plate" Chinese-Hong Kong cars for about four years now. Officially an electronic border card, some researchers opened the box and found electronics for recording and transmitting audio. Not surprisingly, this has enabled border patrol officials to be much more effective in figuring out which cars to search:
Smugglers were the first to note something strange about the devices. A source told Apple Daily that after the cards were installed mainland authorities had no trouble picking off the cars carrying illicit goods.

“For every ten cars we ran we only had [smuggled goods] in three or four to reduce the risk, but the border agents caught all of them. The accuracy was unreal!” Apple Daily quoted the smuggler saying.
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Filed Under: china, surveillance, tracking


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  • icon
    Jim Gaudet (profile), 17 Jun 2011 @ 3:44am

    Surprised?

    Not at all, more surprising would be to find what we have monitoring us in the US...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 4:33am

      Re: Surprised?

      "more surprising would be to find what we have monitoring us in the US."

      Well, lets see - cell phone, OnStar, black box, gps, etc - pretty much everything.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Krusty, 17 Jun 2011 @ 6:58am

        Re: Re: Surprised?

        It seems all the hullabaloo over chipping and national identity cards was a ruse to allow the TRUE national identity cards to not only enter the American way of life, but to have the user pay for his/her own tracking… smart phones

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Svante Jorgensen (profile), 17 Jun 2011 @ 4:36am

    Ineffective

    Cute violation of privacy, but as soon as anyone figures it out everyone will know, and the "bad guys" will just disable it or know not to talk about illicit goods while driving.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michial Thompson, 17 Jun 2011 @ 4:58am

    Coodos

    Coodos to the Chinese, 100% success rate at catching smugglers, and I bet innocents were a little less hassled too....

    Somehow I see no problems with this

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 5:27am

      Re: Coodos -- NOT --

      If freedom means NOTHING to you, you don't deserve to live here. This isn't "effective and efficient law inforcement," it IS indescriminate spying and illegal in the U.S. (thanks to our forefathers) despite what this and the previous administration are doing to the Constitution.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      abc gum, 17 Jun 2011 @ 5:31am

      Re: Coodos

      Michial Thompson -> "Somehow I see no problems with this"

      Somehow I am not surprised with this

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 5:51am

      Re: Coodos

      Coodos?

      Maybe you meant "kudos"? 5 letter words are hard!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 17 Jun 2011 @ 7:16am

      Re: Coodos

      and I bet innocents were a little less hassled too....

      Yeah, except the ones who talked about freedom within audio range of their cars. They're probably now in jail.

      Guess that's not a problem to you.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Phoenix, 17 Jun 2011 @ 8:16am

        Re: Re: Coodos

        Sure, why not make stuff up if you don't have an intelligent come back.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 8:28am

          Re: Re: Re: Coodos

          Sure, why not make stuff up if you don't have an intelligent come back.

          Because everybody knows that the Chinese government would never do anything to suppress democracy or religious freedoms.
          /s

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 7:39am

      Re: Coodos

      "Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither." - Ben Franklin

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Phoenix, 17 Jun 2011 @ 8:23am

      Re: Coodos

      In the context of this story, I agree. You break the law, you get punished. You don't break the law, you don't have to suffer through as much hassle as you would without this mechanism. Everybody wins.

      However, obviously we can all understand how this setup might be easily abused.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      harbingerofdoom (profile), 17 Jun 2011 @ 8:44am

      Re: Coodos

      then perhaps you should look into moving there?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 9:02am

        Re: Re: Coodos

        Second that. I say we each donate a dollar or more to cover for his plane ticket.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Beta (profile), 17 Jun 2011 @ 5:31am

    coventry, anyone?

    It sounds as if the Chinese authorities haven't learned one of the basic rules of intelligence: don't overuse a good source.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Overcast (profile), 17 Jun 2011 @ 6:54am

    Whatever the price of the Chinese Revolution, it has obviously succeeded not only in producing more efficient and dedicated administration, but also in fostering high morale and community of purpose. The social experiment in China under Chairman Mao's leadership is one of the most important and successful in human history. –David Rockefeller


    Yep - shouldn't be too much longer before we end up like this - or well, maybe revolt.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 8:31am

      Re:

      Yep - shouldn't be too much longer before we end up like this - or well, maybe revolt.

      Americans don't have the balls.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 9:18am

        Re: Re:

        "Americans don't have the balls."

        Of course not. Revolution takes balls, and feminized societies don't have them. Spectator sports and foreign military actions (another spectator sport) are popular ways for such societies to pretend that they still have the balls that have actually been removed.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 9:43am

    I think this is the original form of the quote in one of the above comments:
    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

    another along the same lines

    But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
    John Adams

    This kinda thing puts me in mind of one of the anti terrorism laws in the UK that would never be used for anything but catching bad people with bombs and the like that wound up being used to spy on a family suspected of lying about their post code to get their kid into a better school.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2011 @ 10:08am

    You have to take the story with a grain of salt, considering it is third hand (now fourth hand posting it here). Going back up the line tells you a bunch.

    The Epoch Times is an organization that is very much against the mainland Chinese government. They are incredibly critical of everything the Chinese government does, and it isn't beyond them to cook up a story to try to make them look bad. The source newspaper, The Apple (from either Taiwan or Hong Kong, depending on the edition) is a tabloid on the scale of the National Enquirer.

    Perhaps a little research would reveal how silly this entire story is.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    iBelieve, 18 Jun 2011 @ 9:00am

    THANK YOU! I was sure my Foday 4wd was talking to me. Now I know, it was talking to them..

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    iBelieve, 18 Jun 2011 @ 9:22am

    It is very interesting seeing governments ~creating 'damage control' to appease the criticisms and conspiracy theorists. Does every conspiracy have to be a theory? That is the funny part of living on this planet.. although disconcerting as it is. On the other hand, there's not one thing that at some point won't get ~everybody in the end. That's the comforting part. It is really awful to see some acting as if it won't get them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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