Gay Boy Thailand

CYBER CRIME

Internet data law goes into force Aug 23
KING-OUA LAOHONG
Bangkok Post 13. August 2008

From Aug 23, private firms, organisations and government agencies will be required to store all internet traffic data for 90 days so it is available as digital evidence for police. Pol Col Yannapol Youngyuen, commander of the Bureau of Technology and Cyber Crime at the Department of Special Investigation, said the IT Ministry order has no exceptions and will include banks, hotels, schools and internet cafes.

He said digital evidence gathered from computers is useful in tracking those engaged in cyber crime.

Cyber offences, ranging from email forwarding of pornographic pictures to posting libellous messages on forums, are on the rise, Pol Col Yannapol said, but police agencies find it hard to gather the evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice.

He said internet cafes will also be required to collect information to identify computer users, such as ID cards, time of logging in and sites visited. Shops that fail to heed the rules will face fines up to 500,000 baht, he said.

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I have checked the date. It is not the 1st of April. I also checked which country I am in by looking out the window. I am not in North Korea. I have heard about similar rules in Vietnam, but Vietnam is a communist dictatorship. Thailand is… umm… a democracy.

I have already been in Internet cafe raids where the police come in to see if anything immoral goes on in the bathroom, and to see if anyone under 18 is playing Audition after 10 pm.

This new law opens the possibility of raids to check ID cards for Thais and passports for foreigners, and to see if everything you do online is logged.

Will the police actually do that? They just might. They love raids. And the Internet cafes are cash cows which the police take an interest in. If you know what I mean.

Not enough

I sat in a Blue Bird taxi in Jakarta and we stopped at red light. To our right was a police car with four uniformed officers. “Here comes the corruption squad”, I thought. How prophetic that turned out to be. Read the rest of this entry »

No illicit activity here, sir

Patrons of Sunee Plaza in Pattaya were treated to a major show yesterday as 70 boys in brown stormed the area in an effort to clean it up for good.

“Pattaya’s new mayor, Mr. Itthipol Khun-pluem and Pattaya Police have decided it is high time that illicit activities were eradicated and a good reputation be created for the city.”

Read article >>

Another evening in Straight No Conspiracy Internet cafe, and another police raid. This time the cops were in plain clothes.

Still they were easy to spot as police officers. For a start they carried two-way radio sets. And they behaved in a loud and obnoxious way, as if they were masters of the universe. Read the rest of this entry »

I was in my first police raid today. All these years and I have never been in a raid before. Read the rest of this entry »