In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent
Research? Yeah right! First we misuse resources and then blame the government when it tries to control it. Pakistani government is not the best in the world, I must add, but it has been very open when it came to Internet. One was allowed to login to any site without any monitoring. Not anymore. The Government is imposing rules on the use of cybercafes and we are shouting and screaming because General sahib wants to know who is logging on to al-qaida.com. Sounds fair enough. But its not terrorist sites we are worried about. It's our login to the playboy.com and alike that haunts us. Under new rules, the cybercafes will have to ask every customer for proof of identity. >>>>>>>>>> NY Times article follows Cybercafe Crackdown May Trip Up Leering Boys LAHORE, Pakistan, July 27 — Shahid Masood is a bit down on the Internet these days. But he has never seen anyone who looks like a terrorist at the cybercafe he owns here. Mostly he sees boys trying to see girls without their clothes. "People do not use it in a positive manner," he said in this vibrant city with two universities and many students, who make for enthusiastic customers — if not always rich ones. "Most of the people access porn sites. Then it is e-mail and chat sites. Otherwise, there is not much usage of the Internet." In this sense cybercafes in Pakistan are not too different from those in the rest of the world. But in this strict Islamic society of segregation between the sexes and strict bans on sexual content in the media, privacy on the Internet is highly prized. So there is more than a little worry about new government rules, set down in the name of fighting terrorism, that would keep track of cybercafe users. Under the rules, Pakistan's thousands of unregulated cybercafes — often no more than a hot hallway with a few computers and no refreshments — will be required to register with the government. Then, starting a month from now, the cafes will have to ask every customer for proof of identity. The idea is to provide a way of tracking terrorists and deny them the use of computers in perfect anonymity. But the Internet here is also a way for young people to do things society does not normally allow them, and any intrusion into this new zone of privacy could mean a huge drop in business, cybercafe owners and their customers say. "How is it practical?" complained Azir Raziullah, 28, who owns the Web Zone cybercafe in a mall here with no fewer than seven of them. "If you go to a hair-cutting shop, do you show ID? If you go to a boutique and buy a shirt, do you show ID? What is the Internet? It's just business." But it is, in fact, much more than just business, and some Internet users say they would not take the risk with their privacy in a country as confusing as Pakistan on the issue of personal freedom. Pakistan has, on the one hand, a famously outspoken press and fewer blocks on Internet sites than some Muslim countries — although one site used by Al Qaeda supporters was recently blocked. Then again, it is possible to be stoned here for blasphemy. "I don't think giving an ID is a good idea," said one young computer student who identified himself only as Atif. For one, he admits to occasional glimpses at pornographic sites. He would not like that fact known, much less traced. Second, he regularly chats with young women online, women he normally could get nowhere near — mostly talking, with disappointing tameness, about the food they eat. "It's a good service," he said earnestly. "It has affected my life. I get a lot of information," he added, and then smiled: "And when I want I can chat." It is perhaps more risky for women. Kiran Anwar, 21, also a computer student, said she too has found the Internet a rewarding, and socially safe, way to talk to people she would not meet otherwise. She noted, however, that chatters seem to be major liars. Everyone she encounters online, it seems, is rich, attractive and from a good family. "I think of it as fun, as enjoyment, as passing the time," she said. "There are no side effects to that. As long as we are just having chat — not meeting up." And, she said, "It is very private." Shahzada Alam, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which regulates the Internet as well as mobile and fixed-line phones, said the rules are aimed at potential terrorists — not curious or lovesick teenagers. Part of the concern, he said, arose after the disappearance in January of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter whose captors sent messages and photographs via e-mail, though apparently through home computers. Cybercafes, he said, are so far completely unregulated, a hole in Pakistan's national security that he said needed to be narrowed, though not closed completely. Requiring identification, he said, seemed like a gentle step. "You have to have a balance, that is most important," he said. "If you over-control or over-regulate you will discourage people from using it. But if you keep it totally uncontrolled, it could be used by criminals." That balance is a noble goal, said Mueen Sadiq Malik, chief executive of Paknet, the state-owned Internet provider, but not an easy one to put in place. He said that Paknet, one of the largest of the 100 Internet service providers in Pakistan, has been the first required to register cybercafes and inform them that they must ask their customers for identification. To begin complying, his workers have combed their records for heavy Internet users, one clue to which of his 100,000 customers are cybercafes. He has also sent his workers to the streets. So far, he said, they have learned that Internet cafes have spread with the same chaotic freedom as the Internet itself. "In the ultimate analysis, it's not going to go too far," he said of the government plan. He added that he does not think terrorists "depend on this as a major means of communication." He continued: "You can place phone calls. You can use mobiles and keep changing them." He smiled at the impossibility of halting communications, modern or not. "They could send pigeons across," he said. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/01/international/asia/01LAHO.html?ex=1028865600&en=fc3479ee6dfd57e3&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER FARIDI NETWORK - sharing the knowledge http://faridi.net
