WashPo: China set to tighten state-secrets law forcing Internet firms to inform on users

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: April 28, 2010 2:09:34 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] WashPo: China set to tighten state-secrets law forcing Internet firms to inform on users

[Note:  This item comes from friend Steve Goldstein.  DLH]

From: Steve Goldstein <steve.goldstein () cox net>
Date: April 28, 2010 8:09:22 AM PDT
To: Hendricks Dewayne <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: WashPo: China set to tighten state-secrets law forcing Internet firms to inform on users

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042704503.html?wpisrc=nl_tech>

China set to tighten state-secrets law forcing Internet firms to inform on users

by Gillian Wong
Wednesday, April 28, 2010; A08

BEIJING -- China is poised to strengthen a law requiring telecommunications and Internet companies to inform on 
customers who discuss state secrets, potentially forcing businesses to collaborate with the country's vast, 
dissent-stifling security apparatus.

..

An amendment to the Law on Guarding State Secrets, submitted in draft form to China's top legislature for review, would 
make more explicit the requirement that telecommunications operators and Internet service providers assist police and 
state security departments in investigations of leaks of state secrets, the state-run China Daily newspaper said.

"Information transmissions should be immediately stopped if they are found to contain state secrets," the official 
Xinhua News Agency quoted the amendment as saying. Xinhua said that according to the amendment, once a leak of a state 
secret has been discovered, records should be kept and the finding reported to authorities.

In China, state secrets have been so broadly defined that virtually anything -- maps, GPS coordinates, even economic 
statistics -- could fall into the category, and officials sometimes use the classification as a way to avoid disclosing 
information.

The new draft preserves that wide scope, defining state secrets, according to Xinhua, as "information that concerns 
state security and interests and would, if leaked, damage state security and interests in the areas of politics, 
economy and national defense, among others." Reports did not say what the penalties for violations would be under the 
amended law.

..

The draft amendment was submitted Monday to the National People's Congress Standing Committee for a third review, 
usually the final stage before being adopted by lawmakers.

Beijing-based human rights lawyer Mo Shaoping said the amended law would mean that communications service providers 
would be unable to protect the privacy of their clients.

"Such regulation will leave users with no secrets at all, since the service providers have no means to resist the 
police," Mo said.RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress>




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