ONI Country Profi le
259
photographs of all persons residing in the household and register any overnight
guests before dark — a policy that is reinforced by regular midnight checks of homes.
71
Swan Arr Shin, another civilian organization, pays its members to conduct routine
neighborhood surveillance and provide police assistance, delegating others to engage
in violence against opposition fi gures for remuneration.
72 During the Saffron Revolution, intelligence offi cials videotaped and photographed protesters, and enlisted the
help of PDCs, the USDA, and local law-enforcement authorities in identifying individuals for arrests in the ensuing crackdown.
73
Because surveillance is more effective when there are fewer targets, a possible strategy of the Burmese regime may be to limit people ’ s time online. During the October
2007 Internet shutdown, surveillance (or at least perceived surveillance) was attributed
as a rationale for various government responses, including the government ’ s policy of
limiting Internet access to the curfew hours between 9:00 PM and 5:00 AM.
74 Not only
would the late hours signifi cantly reduce the number of users online (since most
Burmese users do not have Internet at home), but it would also make the task of
identifying targeted users easier for a government without much experience in tracking and investigating Internet usage.
While the government ’ s aptitude at conducting online surveillance is not entirely
clear, it appears to be pursuing a combination of methods to monitor the small proportion of its citizens that access the Internet. In addition to the constraints that
Internet caf é owners are required to impose on their customers,
75 it has also been
reported that most Internet caf é s have installed local software to make each computer
beep if it accesses a prodemocratic news media outlet outside the country. Owners
must then intervene with the user or risk imprisonment.
76
Government e-mail services — boosted by the blocking of many free Web-based
e-mail services — are widely believed to be under surveillance, with delays of up to
several days between the sending and receiving of e-mails, or with messages arriving
without their original attachments.
77 Nay Phone Latt was allegedly convicted in part
for storing a cartoon of General Than Shwe in his e-mail account.
78
The military government ’ s stringent fi ltering regime fosters fear and self-censorship.
According to ONI sources, the banning of certain political blogs in mid-2007 sparked
rumors that more would be banned if this trend continued, spurring many local bloggers to self-monitor their postings in the hope that their blogs would not be blacklisted.
79 Internet slowdowns fuel speculation of enhanced online monitoring, especially
where users are required to click through pages equipped with network visibility
applications (such as Bluecoat) that allow for monitoring of network activity and
behavior intended to access the Internet.
80 Government workers are not exempt from
surveillance — in 2010, two high-ranking government offi cials were sentenced to death
for e-mailing documents abroad.
81
259
photographs of all persons residing in the household and register any overnight
guests before dark — a policy that is reinforced by regular midnight checks of homes.
71
Swan Arr Shin, another civilian organization, pays its members to conduct routine
neighborhood surveillance and provide police assistance, delegating others to engage
in violence against opposition fi gures for remuneration.
72 During the Saffron Revolution, intelligence offi cials videotaped and photographed protesters, and enlisted the
help of PDCs, the USDA, and local law-enforcement authorities in identifying individuals for arrests in the ensuing crackdown.
73
Because surveillance is more effective when there are fewer targets, a possible strategy of the Burmese regime may be to limit people ’ s time online. During the October
2007 Internet shutdown, surveillance (or at least perceived surveillance) was attributed
as a rationale for various government responses, including the government ’ s policy of
limiting Internet access to the curfew hours between 9:00 PM and 5:00 AM.
74 Not only
would the late hours signifi cantly reduce the number of users online (since most
Burmese users do not have Internet at home), but it would also make the task of
identifying targeted users easier for a government without much experience in tracking and investigating Internet usage.
While the government ’ s aptitude at conducting online surveillance is not entirely
clear, it appears to be pursuing a combination of methods to monitor the small proportion of its citizens that access the Internet. In addition to the constraints that
Internet caf é owners are required to impose on their customers,
75 it has also been
reported that most Internet caf é s have installed local software to make each computer
beep if it accesses a prodemocratic news media outlet outside the country. Owners
must then intervene with the user or risk imprisonment.
76
Government e-mail services — boosted by the blocking of many free Web-based
e-mail services — are widely believed to be under surveillance, with delays of up to
several days between the sending and receiving of e-mails, or with messages arriving
without their original attachments.
77 Nay Phone Latt was allegedly convicted in part
for storing a cartoon of General Than Shwe in his e-mail account.
78
The military government ’ s stringent fi ltering regime fosters fear and self-censorship.
According to ONI sources, the banning of certain political blogs in mid-2007 sparked
rumors that more would be banned if this trend continued, spurring many local bloggers to self-monitor their postings in the hope that their blogs would not be blacklisted.
79 Internet slowdowns fuel speculation of enhanced online monitoring, especially
where users are required to click through pages equipped with network visibility
applications (such as Bluecoat) that allow for monitoring of network activity and
behavior intended to access the Internet.
80 Government workers are not exempt from
surveillance — in 2010, two high-ranking government offi cials were sentenced to death
for e-mailing documents abroad.
81