During a recent visit to the Yunnan resort town of Dali a long-time Western resident told me he knows whenever he uses a computer in any of the local internet parlors the camera that sits atop the computer monitor is not just there for his use in connecting with friends and families overseas. “They take the user’s photo, just like at the automatic teller machines,” he told me. He’s well-acquainted with the head of the local censorship bureau, a department within the Dali police jurisdiction. “We watch your address for any ‘spikes’ in activity,” the officer had told him, only half-joking.

The New York Times wrote a couple days ago that:

News Web sites in China, complying with secret government orders, are requiring that new users log on under their true identities to post comments, a shift in policy that the country’s Internet users and media have fiercely opposed in the past.

Until recently, users could weigh in on news items on many of the affected sites more anonymously, often without registering at all, though the sites were obligated to screen all posts, and the posts could still be traced via Internet protocol addresses.

It looks like the loss of face from the Green Dam debacle this past summer taught the powers that be they should be just a little more sneaky in shadowing internet users.

Who knows, maybe one day censors will have snuck onto Chinese home computers software that instructs built-in cameras to take a snap shot of users whenever they log onto, say, QQ, to chat with friends.

Say cheese!