China plans to tear down privacy another notch

On the heels of my post the other day saying that privacy is dead comes this New York Times article saying that China is taking huge steps to tear privacy down even more. I’ve wondered when things would get to this point, SciFi movies have been wondering it too. This will bring China about one step away from a Gattaca like environment!

Along with the 180,000 private/corporate cameras that the Chinese government can already access, this move will add 20,000 cameras in Shenzhen programmed with facial recognition technology. In addition to that, citizens will be required to carry new ID cards:

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.

I’m wondering why they stopped there! Why don’t they encode the cards with DNA? Then the police officers could carry hand DNA scanners and compare the cards to a strand of hair to ensure identification….. That would be Gattaca and I believe that’s the next step. Following that, along with their 1 child law, they’ll be selectively altering the DNA of that child I’m sure!

With New York adding cameras that track license plate numbers, I’m sure that we’re only a few years behind following China in further tearing down personal privacy. I’ve heard rumors over the last year or so that Utah is working on that same technology – privacy is dead and we’re losing more of it everyday!