China, Clinton and Big Brother

Yahoo, Google and other tech companies' willingness to aid and abet China's censorship is well documented as is China's use of "roughly 30,000 internet police" to monitor web users and arrest those who visit or post to banned sites. Now it looks like Beijing is upping the anty a bit.

From the Financial Times...

The city of Beijing is planning to hire thousands of internet censors in a fresh sign of the authorities' attempts to tighten their grip on cyberspace.

The city will seek to employ at least 10,000 "internet volunteers" before the end of this year to monitor "harmful" websites and content, said an official at the municipal authority's information office.

Chinese local governments and Communist party branches often pay web commentators to influence online opinion. But it is unusual for officials to admit the practice and the big recruitment drive gives a rare view of the resources China uses to try to control the internet.

Before you get too comfortable, remember the U.S. has its own internet surveillance program in place and innocent people often get ensnared, including Bill Clinton.

From Wired...

A secret NSA surveillance database containing millions of intercepted foreign and domestic e-mails includes the personal correspondence of former President Bill Clinton, according to the New York Times.

The database, codenamed Pinwale, allows NSA analysts to search through and read large volumes of e-mail messages, including correspondence to and from Americans. Pinwale is likely the end point for data sucked from internet backbones into NSA-run surveillance rooms at AT&T facilities around the country.