06/10/2009 Source: People’s Daily

Survey reveals that over 80 percent of netizens believe the pre-installation of filtering software on PCs violates privacy

Survey

Do you think it violates the privacy of users?

Yes: 10,504 votes or 83.95 percent; No: 1,465 votes or 11.71 percent; Do not care: 544 votes or 4.34 percent

Do you think this software can be effective?

Yes: 1,445 votes or 11.55 percent; No: 9,312 votes or 74.42 percent; Hard to say: 1,756 votes or 14.03 percent

Are you willing to pay to use it after one year?

Yes: 310 votes or 2.48 percent; No: 11,754 votes or 93.93 percent; Cannot decide before using it: 449 votes or 3.59 percent

The data comes from a survey by Sohu.com

Expert: “Uniform installation of software should go through public hearings first”

The announcement by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has led to heated discussions online. One netizen noted that, “Personal computers should also have the right of privacy.”

Ma Guangyuan, a doctor at the government policy department of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said “It is my freedom to decide whether to lock my home or not.” The implementation of a uniform requirement should have legal ground.

Lv Jingjian, a member of the China Computer Federation, also noted that to popularize a type of PC software across society should go through public hearings first.

Ma said that PCs should be considered private and that although the software provider stresses that users can uninstall the software by themselves, this should not serve as the basis for requiring that the software be installed on all PCs. He further added, “There is nothing wrong with parents’ worrying that children may browse pornographic websites, but I can install necessary software all by myself. It is unnecessary to have some kind of software pre-installed on PCs uniformly, as stipulated by the state.” If adults use PCs on their own (with the filtering software preinstalled uniformly), it is likely that they feel as if they are being monitored all the time.

As to the big sum of money spent on this government purchase, which is as high as 41.7 million yuan, Ma thought that if most individual users uninstall the software upon purchase of a computer, “it will amount to a huge waste of public finances.”

Net filtering software provider: It is just a commercial behavior and has nothing to do with the government

“This is completely a commercial activity and has nothing to do with the government,” said Zhang Chenmin, General Manager of Jinhui Computer System Engineering Company based in Zhengzhou, when interviewed by reporters.

He elaborated that the “Green Dam-Youth Escort” Net filtering software was developed by his company to protect minors from indecent content on the Internet. “This software initially does not run automatically on computers upon purchase. It is just a software application package and users can choose to install or uninstall it.”

Zhang emphasized that, “This software shares the same principle as many of the software applications in the US that protect young people’s Net-surfing activities. It is designed to filter pornographic and violent information on the Internet and create a healthy Internet environment for young people. Many foreign websites and online games developed by foreign companies are awash with pornographic and violent content, wielding harmful influence on the physical and psychological development of young people. Western media politicize this kind of simple commercial behavior and even claim we have military background, which is by no means true.”