From: Mustafa Akgul (akgul@Bilkent.EDU.TR)
Date: Wed 07 Aug 2002 - 11:47:24 EEST
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2002 19:30:04 +0200
From: Erol Sayin <sayin@ie.metu.edu.tr>
Subject: JAPANESE SAY THEY DON'T WANT TO BECOME NUMBERS
JAPANESE SAY THEY DON'T WANT TO BECOME NUMBERS
Japan's creation of a new citizen database has caused widespread concern
that there has not been enough attention paid to privacy issues. Every
citizen, starting at birth, will be assigned a unique 11-digit number.
At
present it will be used only to retrieve basic information (name,
address,
sex, and birth date), but many people think the system will be expanded
to
include other personal data. The new system has prompted widespread
disobedience in the country, and half a dozen cities have refused to
have
any part of it. Nobuo Hoshino, mayor of Yokubunji, presiding over a
"disconnecting ceremony," said: "Residents are sending us their views by
e-mail, fax and various other ways, and almost all of them support us."
One
critic says that the project will grow and grow into "a bigger project,
named 'E-Government,' that will have 16,000 administrative uses." (New
York
Times 5 Aug 2002)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/06/international/asia/06JAPA.html
