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Fears Hover Over Plan to Collect Data on All Cambodians
March 17, 2017

Every Cambodian will be assigned a 10-digit identification number under which information from various government departments, as well as the private sector, will be collected in a central database, Interior Minister Sar Kheng announced on Thursday.

The new system—set to be rolled out in 2019—would help people set up bank accounts, prove their identity and aid authorities in maintaining public order, according to the ministry. The initiative is expected to cost at least $40 million.

Concerns were quickly raised over the system being used as a surveillance mechanism against government critics, and similar initiatives overseas have sparked debates over potentially massive breaches of privacy.

“Cambodia needs to create a list of registration data to ensure that one person has one identity,” Mr. Kheng said during a meeting in Phnom Penh.

Yin Malyna, a deputy director-general at the ministry’s identification department, told reporters that the plan—estimated to cost between $40 million and $50 million to implement—would have both positive and negative effects, though he only elaborated on the potential benefits.

“The positive effects will be huge for our people, first in providing effective services and [making it] easy for our people to show their identity,” Mr. Malyna said.

The collected information would also help government departments undertake public policy analyses, he said.

Mao Chandara, the department’s director-general, said Cambodians would begin receiving their ID numbers in 2019, and they will “use this code from birth to death.”

“We will make an effort to collect citizen data to be managed in one system, and this system will become a data center,” General Chandara said. “This center will be used by public services as well as the private sector.”...
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fear ... ns-126693/

" Mao Chandara, the department’s director-general, said Cambodians would begin receiving their ID numbers in 2019, and they will “use this code from birth to death.”

And pretty soon your name will become irrelevant as people are simply referred to as citizen number.....................................

How long will it take for the system to get hacked?

So, like a Social Security Number? Do Americans still get a draft card? I remember my work colleague showing me his back in the 90s. It wasn't in the toilets

cptrelentless wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2017 1:20 am I remember my work colleague showing me his back in the 90s. It wasn't in the toilets

Thanks for sharing. (But no further details necessary.)

They won't like this at all. Trying to figure out why they don't want to even give their real names out for stuff and always using aliases. I wanted to use my wifes real name and birthday to register here apple ID awhile back. It was like pulling teeth to get her to agree, really I just went ahead and put it anyway.

Also how many times I been asked to recover a lost password on facebook or other social media is countless. "What's your birthday?" "I didn't put a real one and forgot" "What email did you use?" "I don't know I just entered one" or "I don't know the password to that email" and round and around we go. Coming back to not being able to do anything because they didn't enter in real info or at least didn't keep track of the fake info they entered.

obelisks wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2017 8:03 pm " Mao Chandara, the department’s director-general, said Cambodians would begin receiving their ID numbers in 2019, and they will “use this code from birth to death.”

And pretty soon your name will become irrelevant as people are simply referred to as citizen number.....................................

In a country where they cannot organize a rubbish collection or a bus service or a [ ?????? ] why is it that I am thinking , Hey this will never work in Cambodia .