China tracking software

[PapaAzucar]

Hello all, I heard that China started (in July 2011) tracking everyone of its citizens and foreigners in the country with the largest database system ever. I've been trying to find details about this system, but have not found any English articles on this. If anything, this is probably as big of a technology feat as Facebook or Google, and is considered the real-life Big Brother software. So anytime you buy a bus, train, plane or travel ticket where they ask for an ID in China, that info is entered into the database so that the Chinese government knows where everyone in the country is at any given time. I am not interested in the politics of this, but I am more interested in how the Chinese system is implemented like cloud computing, big data, data mining, data warehousing, scalability, etc.

If anyone has first-hand encounter with this system or know of articles on this, please share. Thanks in advance.

[CraigTPE]

From a broader perspective, one has to wonder who ISN'T tracking people these days...

With the imminent Facebook IPO, there has been a flurry of articles about data mining, not just for targeting advertising but also making hiring decisions and more. Really sobering thought.

Folks, if you are online, you are being tracked.