Watch where you’re walking! Wednesday.

Who doesn’t like a good old fashioned stroll!? And who doesn’t occasionally Jay walk? Anyone? If so I haven’t met them. I mean you obviously look both ways before crossing the street but aside from that I’ve never really seen jay walking, or Jay walkers as a HUGE problem... But some people do, can you guess who?

The Chinese government, are you surprised? Yeah me neither... They seem to have taken George Orwells 1984 novel to heart. And instead of leaving the ideas in that novel in the realm of fiction, where they belong, they’ve evidently decided to use it as a template for how to run their country.

In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen they’re trying out a new system for fining citizens who commit the GRAVE crime of Jaywalking... Forget about the fact that they have 17 out of 20 of the most polluted cities on the planet, THAT’S IRRELEVANT! This, this is what’s important.

What is this system exactly? Well using a series of cameras they have strewn throughout the metropolis they want to use facial recognition software to spot these “offenders” and send an SMS to their phone and fine them automatically, right when the “crime” is committed.

Not only do they want to be able to send messages to your phone for these fines, the police in that city are trying to get the government to allow them access to all citizens of that city’s mobile phones. And many of the popular apps in that region of the world such as, WeChat, Sina, and Weibo. How is this possible?

Well, in Shenzhen if you live there for more than 30 days you are OBLIGATED to register all of your information with the authorities... What exactly that information is, isn’t exactly clear. But it seems to be your facial profile among other things...

Now this sounds innocent enough, they just want to crack down on jaywalking guys! There’s nothing weird about this at ALL!...

The real fear here is what will they do with this technology aside from fine people for jaywalking. Will they use it to track “political dissidents” and shut them down before they ever become a “problem”? Tiananmen square ringing any bells?...

This whole prospect is Orwellian beyond belief... And one of the many reasons I never intend to visit the authoritarian state that is China!

Be happy for the freedom you have! And fight hard to keep it. We should be able to walk as the crow flies, FREELY! :P

Here’s a few of the images and picture I’m planning to use for my Kickstarter campaign, trying to get this group down from 21 to 15.. Any suggestions which ones are your favourites? Let me know! :)

Hope your having a good week. Spring FINALLY seems to be here... So hey, there’s that!:P Hope your week is a sunny as mine is these last few days. :) Happy Wednesday everyone.

Sincerely, Bret Frick.