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Syria orders cybercafe owners to ID customers

Syria has ordered cybercafe owners to take down details of customers in an extension of its "iron censorship" of the web, according to monitoring group the Syrian Media Centre. Proprietors are now obliged to record clients' names, ID card numbers and the time they spend online, and present the resulting data "regularly to the …

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Peter Hawkins
Alert

In five years time...

......replace "Syria" with "UK".

Magnus Egilsson
Joke

Finally!!!!!

Now we know where the EU gets its sensoring ideas from . . .

Anonymous Coward
Black Helicopters

Web proxy FTW !

Yeah, because there's no way round the block is there?

Can you say, "Daisy chained web proxy anonymizer" ?

Dave S
Unhappy

re: In five years time....

Obviously only 'in the interests of security' and beating the 'war on terror'.

Be afraid, very afraid.

René Seindal
Black Helicopters

Don't western countries do the same

When I have used internet cafés in Italy, I have had to show ID, all in the name of "iron anti-terrorism"

Jamie
Linux

@ Peter Hawkins

I have to agree with you.

"Proprietors are now obliged to record clients' names, ID card numbers and the time they spend online, and present the resulting data "regularly to the authorities"."

The people who promote these cards say that if you don't break they law you have nothing to hide, yes but the law is made by the people in Westminster, how long till they change it to outlaw the Bible, Quran, and other books. It is already well known that certian books are banned, and the gov't will try to jail you for reading certian books or having different views.

The only reason a gov't would want to have control like they are trying to push here and across the pond in the US is to tell you what you can read, write, think. Not that far to go when you think of how Germany was in the 1920s.

Long Live Guy Fawkes

A true British Hero.

Sillyfellow

make that 2 or 3..

five years??

with the way things are going, UK will be like that much sooner!

ref: secretly rushed through new law agains 'public gatherings' where it's illegal for more than 15 people to be 'gathered' without written permission..

(now i'm a criminal when i'm waiting for a late train, in a long queue, or having a cigarette outside a pub... go figure)

, introduction of tasers, talk of implanting rfid chips in people, fingerprinting our children at school, 'loosing' our details and thyen doing nothing when you get fraudulated, chemtrails and stuff in our water and vaccines poisoning us, a medical health system that kills people and don't care about the rest..terrorism in general (which is ALL bullshit designed to keep you frightened and alow more conrol over you),... and the list goes on...

WAKE UP PEOPLE. you are slaves who have no say.

Dave
Unhappy

@Peter Hawkins

I hate to disagree with someone who apparently is sittling on the same side of the "Big Gordon Is Watching You" as me. But there's no way the UK government can get their act together well enough to have a working ID card system in a mere 5 years. Not with the Usual Suspect consulting firms talking to the myriad of Little Brothers.

Make it 10 years, and I'll agree.

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

to Sillyfellow

> ref: secretly rushed through new law agains 'public gatherings' where it's illegal for more than 15 people to be 'gathered' without written permission..

huh? do you have references for that?

Rob

@ Jamie

"how long till they change it to outlaw the Bible, Quran, and other books."

Close but no cigar. On present form he fucktards are more likely to outlaw the Bible in favour of the Quran and other books; any other books except the bible.

Pat
Paris Hilton

So although the UK is catching up...

From the comments above:

1 - the UK is incapable of implementing a cybercafe ID scheme as quickly as Syria;

2 - although our politicos try to tell us what to think and say (political correctness?) the UK still hasn't caught up with 1920s Germany.

I don't know about you lot, but this charming amateurism causes me to feel a tiny glow of patriotism for UK/Great_Britain/England/Airstrip_One/EU_UndecidedDesignation or whatever compartment our Great_Brown_One chooses to bang on about.

Paris...because we'll always have Paris.

John A Blackley

Unreality

The Syrian cyber freedom dudes are complaining about the government taking away "the right to privacy and free expression". Could someone call these guys and bring them up-to-date on where they're living?

As for the "oh, the government's too incompetent to make that happen here" crowd. Depending on incompetence to preserve your freedoms?

Oh I'm confident. I'm very confident.

Anonymous Coward
Stop

Re: Richard

"Can you say, "Daisy chained web proxy anonymizer" ?"

Er... probably not in a cybercafe where the exact PC, time, date and (probably) software used and websites visited will all be logged and matched to your ID card.

Sillyfellow

info on new 'illegal gatherings' law

yep, i do have references to that:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2007-managing-protest

and

ProtestaroundParliament@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

and an excellent discussion on FW forum:

http://www.festivalweather.com/forum/right-to-assembly-vt6222.html

dodge
Thumb Down

Web proxies -- great idea, unless you have to use them

Web proxies are pretty much a non-starter. If you live in Syria, or any country not in Eur/US, Web proxies are far too slow to be useful. Watching a Web page render with glacial slowness so that you can post your blog entry on some dire politico shenanigans? You'd have to be pretty determined. And have a _lot_ of time on your hands.

Graham Marsden

@Sillyfellow

Firstly what you link to is a consultation document, not an actual law and secondly, as far as I can see much of that consultation is simply designed at fixing the mess that the Government made previously which allowed Brian Haw to continue his demonstration!

BTW mixing fact with conspiracy fiction such as: 'loosing' our details and thyen doing nothing when you get fraudulated, chemtrails and stuff in our water and vaccines poisoning us, a medical health system that kills people and don't care about the rest..terrorism in general (which is ALL bullshit designed to keep you frightened and alow more conrol over you),..." isn't going to help convince people of your cause.

PS I love the word "fraudulated" though :-)

Craig Lawton

Italy and Syria

Yeah... when we were in italy we had show ID at cybercafes. You had the feeling the cafe owners didn't give a toss, just wanted the gov't to leave them alone.

In Syria, it's weird what technology you can't get too. I relied on having a Java plugin in my browser to upload pics.... ummmm export controls etc....-> no plugin.... very weird. Couldn't download it either. Was blocked.

theotherone
Thumb Down

dude...

dude I'm from syria....this law was passed like 6 months ago, but was never enforced. Two of my mates own internet cafes and they have not been asked to record anyone's ID or surfing activity.

I myself run an online Syrian discussion forum with 47,000 members and have never been harassed by anyone.

So please next time get your facts straight and try to report the news as it happens, not half a year later.

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