Is Thai Visa Monitored By Thai Police

[Thongkorn]

Is this site monitored by the Thai government , also are there other governments around the world watching on Thailand's Internet sites, Every week we are seeing more and more arrests of foreign people being arrested and returned to the Country of there crime, The Thai police seem to be Co operating with other police around the world, Is Thailand important enough to warrant Governments around the world interest. I am not on the run or wanted anywhere as far as i know so i am not worried, should other people be looking over there shoulders,

[SeanMoran]

It's more the false reports than the truth that you should be worried about, in that case.

[sharecropper]

OP, if you'd like to pop in and see me in Soi 9 with your passport and a packed bag I am sure we can sort this groundless rumour out for you!

[toptuan]

It's my understanding that The Ministry of Culture, about a year or two ago undertook the task of monitoring all internet traffic, especially to intercept or follow up content that is offensive to Thailand or its government, or system of government. This happened just after the YouTube fiasco, when it was blocked in Thailand for a period of 6-8 months awhile back.

To me, it's not a great stretch to think that anything that might affect public safety (an international criminal on the loose) would certainly be shared with other government agencies such as the police.

Side bar: The process of filtering, of course, slows down internet speed which is one of the several reasons why Thailand has such an abominable ISP download/upload speed.

For support of these assertions you can do the research yourself. Simply Google "Thailand, internet, monitoring" (without the quotes), and peruse any one of the 293,000 articles. Some, of course, which have more substance than others. Use your discretion.

Edited February 20, 2010 by toptuan

[whiterussian]

Of course it bloody is! wake up people! I am an internet pro of more than 16 years experience.

I can download the whole of wikipedia in less than an hour!

Facebook has 400,000,000 users, so if i had access i could download the database in a day with my Thai internet speed. From that I could cross link every member to his friends, track the IP for location, gather stats on the times they get home, go out, have lunch etc.. and thats without even reading the drivel they post each day!

I could fit that information onto my 20,000 baht desktop PC, imagine what i could do with uncapped speeds and a super computer or ten!

To think that EVERYTHING on the net is not collected, filtered, processed, is naive.

Google have just officially partnered with the NSA. (presumably to find Mr Bin Laden via his tweets on twitter). You do the maths.

As for cell phones, didnt mr T get in trouble for giving Singapore the control of his mobile networks?

To collect all the information on Thai Visa would take me with my shitty bandwidth a day or two. With 'feeds' coming from the website, i wouldn't even have to do any work to keep track of it all... it would be delivered instantly into my database.

The moral of the story: dont be naughty, or if you do, get used to the simple life, free of electronic communication.. ah bliss.

Edited February 20, 2010 by whiterussian

[PeaceBlondie]

They watch ThaiVisa. And everybody.

[toptuan]

Of course it bloody is! wake up people! I am an internet pro of more than 16 years experience.

I can download the whole of wikipedia in less than an hour! 6,000,000+ pages

Facebook has 400,000,000 users, so if i had access i could download the database in a day with my Thai internet speed. From that I could cross link every member to his friends, track the IP for location, gather stats on the times they get home, go out, have lunch etc.. and thats without even reading the drivel they post each day!

To think that EVERYTHING on the net is not collected, filtered, processed, is naive.

Google have just officially partnered with the NSA. You do the maths.

As for cell phones, didnt mr T get in trouble for giving Singapore the control of his mobile networks?

To collect all the information on Thai Visa would take me with my shitty bandwidth a day or two. With 'feeds' coming from the website, i wouldn't even have to do any work to keep track of it all... it would be delivered instantly into my database.

The moral of the story: dont be naughty, or if you do, get used to the simple life, free of electronic communication.. ah bliss.

Wow, with you having all that Big Brother expertise, I guess we can be glad you're not on the Dark Side, Mr. WhiteRussian!

Right??

Edited February 20, 2010 by toptuan

[7by7]

Every week we are seeing more and more arrests of foreign people being arrested and returned to the Country of there crime, The Thai police seem to be Co operating with other police around the world

Surely more international police cooperation bringing more criminals to justice is a good thing!

[jdinasia]

No need for a "tin hat" yet ..... though there are certainly people that think everything is a conspiracy!

Thai Visa self-censors to protect itself from being blocked in the country. There just are things you cannot discuss publicly in Thailand. One of my co-workers literally looked over her shoulder as we discussed Thailand's future today.

The rules are simple. Avoid discussing the royal family, do not be offensive about religion in Thailand (particularly Buddhism but all religions are protected).

After that -- be civil and don't discuss moderation issues.

[whiterussian]

Wow, with you having all that Big Brother expertise, I guess we can be glad you're not on the Dark Side, Mr. WhiteRussian!

Right??

Im not on any side, I do it for personal amusement, like a Sudoku puzzle. Although I'm working on a great project that will surely piss off a few well known (foreign) companies. After that, maybe i will map ethical activities and issues to the (foreign) stock exchanges. (its a long shot). As for crime fighting/espionage, i dont think i'd last very long in a country where hitmen cost $1000! I will leave that to others!

Thai visa would NOT have to have done any deal with another agency/company... the nature of the beast is that its open for all to see, and very,very easy to monitor by any computer savvy person.

Edited February 20, 2010 by whiterussian

[samran]

having previously worked for the Thai government, I can safely say that no-one would be interested in what a bunch whinging of expats said. Even if they were interested, there is absoultely no co-ordination and follow through in most places in government, so if TV has ever been a website d'jour for the censors, you can be pretty certain of the fact that it would litterally be for one day and one day only.

[IMA_FARANG]

This is a public forum...so anything you say here (or I say for that matter) is being said in a public forum.

Therefore, it stands to reason, that anyone has the right to read your or my comments on this forum.

There are certain rules, and certain subjects which are not to be discussed. We all agree to the rules when we register on to the forum. Hopefully you read and understood them at the time.

Now, if I were an astute Thai governement official; and I wanted to float a "trial ballon" on, oh let's just say, the subjsct of immigration rules/changes and reforms, then I might concieveably start a rumor that so and so was going to happen...and just see what the reaction was.

I'm not saying that ever has happened....but it is cetainly concieveable, isn't it?

I'm not paranoid...but I ain't no fool either.

Like the country song goes, "I may have been born in the evening, but honey, it wasn't last night."

[JatujakShopper]

having previously worked for the Thai government, I can safely say that no-one would be interested in what a bunch whinging of expats said. Even if they were interested, there is absoultely no co-ordination and follow through in most places in government, so if TV has ever been a website d'jour for the censors, you can be pretty certain of the fact that it would litterally be for one day and one day only.

Every time I think "They're watching me!" (as exciting as watching a hippo bask in the water hole, most days) I'm going to remember what samran (who has the right of it I'd wager!) said here and laugh and continue about my silly business, boldly consuming alcohol between the hours of 2 and 5.

[YanTree]

Is this site monitored by the Thai government

Probably not any more than any other website in Thailand but the fact that the owners of this site take precautions to not break Thai laws tells me that they have had issues with the Government in the past over content.

They can't be watching too close, especially in the Visa section, or they just don't give a f@#k because discussions about how to evade the rules is rampant in there and if they wanted to they could use that forum alone as a way to take the pulse of the immigration rule breaking Farang public - they don't seem to be doing that.

also are there other governments around the world watching on Thailand's Internet sites

How the hel_l are we supposed to know that? I would imagine every major intelligence agency in the world has people whose sole job it is to monitor the internet - insofar as they are interested in Thailand I would imagine at least a few of them have stumbled upon this site before - probably more to get 'background' information on the country or whatever their target is, than actual intelligence on them.

Is Thailand important enough to warrant Governments around the world interest.

Nearly every government is important enough to warrant the interest of every other government. Yes, Thailand is an important country in the international political and economic world. The Asian financial crisis of 1997 started here, to give you an idea of the importance and power of this economy. There is a picture of Barack Obama smiling and patting the back of the current prime minister when he visited Asia - doubt you will find him doing that with a country that means nothing to the United States. Also note that Thailand played a key role in the Vietnam war and is a major tourist destination - the fact that so many countries have so many of their citizens coming here means they need to monitor it for safety, to provide services and travel advisories for them etc.

I am not on the run or wanted anywhere as far as i know so i am not worried, should other people be looking over there shoulders,

Depends what they are wanted for and whether or not the Thai's follow through with their plans to start checking backgrounds. I have a warrant in California for a minor misdemeanor and am somewhat concerned about them detaining me or something next time I go to immigration - though I've had it awhile and gone through immigration all over Europe, UK, Hong Kong etc and had no problems - so if those countries aren't picking it up - I doubt Thailand will even if they fully implement whatever they are doing. My guess is that some threshold has to be met in terms of how serious the crime is. Possibly felonies only or something like that.

Edited February 20, 2010 by YanTree

[bjoe97]

Of course it bloody is! wake up people! I am an internet pro of more than 16 years experience.

I can download the whole of wikipedia in less than an hour! 6,000,000+ pages

Facebook has 400,000,000 users, so if i had access i could download the database in a day with my Thai internet speed. From that I could cross link every member to his friends, track the IP for location, gather stats on the times they get home, go out, have lunch etc.. and thats without even reading the drivel they post each day!

To think that EVERYTHING on the net is not collected, filtered, processed, is naive.

Google have just officially partnered with the NSA. You do the maths.

As for cell phones, didnt mr T get in trouble for giving Singapore the control of his mobile networks?

To collect all the information on Thai Visa would take me with my shitty bandwidth a day or two. With 'feeds' coming from the website, i wouldn't even have to do any work to keep track of it all... it would be delivered instantly into my database.

The moral of the story: dont be naughty, or if you do, get used to the simple life, free of electronic communication.. ah bliss.

Wow, with you having all that Big Brother expertise, I guess we can be glad you're not on the Dark Side, Mr. WhiteRussian!

Right??

My friend

you do not need any real expertise thesedays-its actually very easy to get the whole goods on someone.

my young cousin can walk into any internet and read every mail sent out( and received) by anyone using that computor that day( maybe before) My God theres so many desperate men out there!

I gotta admit it makes for fun reading.

he found a man who was avoiding repaying some money by a combo of facebook and some other internet social site and his credit card number( which he got from a hotel he knew he stayed at)

One big shot in the FCC insulted my girlfriend( this guy has now left ,the news guys are great and I promised if he left her alone I would not mention his name,but I will say " au-revoir mon ami" to him).

I got a whole tape on him calling blacks " niggers" and how he would have her raped by them with a simple device my cousin bought me over the internet.

In MBK I bought a machine that switches down all mobile phones in a 8 meter area( great for those annoying people who insist upon talking in cinemas/restaurants)

Another machine can allow you to listen in on all mobile calls.An advanced one actually allows you to programe in what number you want to listen to and then join up all the calls.

Another device available on the net sends out white noise which can drive people crazy./They cannot understand what is bugging them- another great fun little "toy"

One can buy something that masks one urine to pass all tests.

You can get all sorts of amazing thing on the net- I am not sure its all such a good thing this technology being so available.

[Ulysses G.]

having previously worked for the Thai government, I can safely say that no-one would be interested in what a bunch whinging of expats said. Even if they were interested, there is absoultely no co-ordination and follow through in most places in government, so if TV has ever been a website d'jour for the censors, you can be pretty certain of the fact that it would litterally be for one day and one day only.

This sounds absolutely correct to me.

[givenall]

It is only by chance they may see something useful on these form. US with all their mitts, monitor everything and anything and they do not come up with much of anything so I don’t believe Thai government has the will or technology to watch us,

[Chaimai]

Every week we are seeing more and more arrests of foreign people being arrested and returned to the Country of there crime, The Thai police seem to be Co operating with other police around the world

Surely more international police cooperation bringing more criminals to justice is a good thing!

I agree 100%.

[Deke]

Every week we are seeing more and more arrests of foreign people being arrested and returned to the Country of there crime, The Thai police seem to be Co operating with other police around the world

Surely more international police cooperation bringing more criminals to justice is a good thing!

I agree 100%.

It's 2010 but we're rapidly approaching 1984?

[britmaveric]

I know the good dr_PatPong who worked with some high level thai govt people once said that yes TV is being viewed by the powers that be.

[whiterussian]

There is an emerging technology, called Semantic data mining, that means a person doesnt have to sit and read everything, its all about flagging clusters, keywords, word density etc... This data can be turned into graphical representations using statistical models so a couple of tech graduates can be paid 1000 baht a day to play tetris, and watch for flashing lights!

As seen here:

Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining: 13th Pacific-Asia Conference, PAKDD 2009 Bangkok, Thailand, April 27-30, 2009 P

roceedings (Lecture Notes ... / Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence) (Paperback)

~ Thanaruk Theeramunkong (Editor), Boonserm Kijsirikul (Editor, Nick Cercone (Editor), Tu-Bao Ho (Editor)

http://www.amazon.com/Advances-Knowledge-D...g/dp/3642013066

Here is a good video showing the FUN side of data mining:

http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_harris_t...et_stories.html

as of 6:04 it starts to get good imo.

Edited February 20, 2010 by whiterussian

[geriatrickid]

The downside of TV and other forums is that the words are there for as long as the web caching and archives systems that captured the data are, so if you write something inflamatory, the words can indeed come back to bite you on the posterior.

However, what I find of more exciting interest is the monitoring of emails and telephone calls. Those pesky Australians monitor just about everything in the SE Asian region. If you think that call to the mia noi where you tell her you are like a nuclear bomb in bed and you are going to give her an explosive orgasm is secret, you might be surprised to know someone behind a computer monitor in Canada, UK, or USA knows about it, because a program picked up the key words of nuclear bomb and explosion.

I suggest aluminum foil cloaks and pie hats for everyone.

[Birdman]

Sdrawkcab ylno tsop I yhw s'taht.

[bigtime]

I have a little bit of background in this stuff (ok, a lot, I used to work for the police service in my country).

Most police internet monitoring is reactionary and after the fact. What I mean is that if you mention something about illegal activities, the idea that someone will be at your door the next day is unlikely. Where it comes into play, is that if someone files a complaint about an illegal activity, they comb thru their intercepted traffic, ThaiVisa, etc to find clues. So every comment you made a month ago is then used to figure out where you hang out, where you live.

Yes, they have the technology to find bad guys in real time. But it's rationed to where that kind of firepower makes sense. National security for example, or catching pedophiles. If you're a terrorist, or a pedophile, or you skipped your taxes, or you just stole a pack of cigarettes, you will obviously get a much different level of attention. I think their top level of scrutiny is reserved for drug dealers, terrorists, pedophiles, and lese majeste. Everything else is a step or two lower on their priority list. But if you're wanted somewhere, you'll eventually be visited by police, if only to say hello and collect donations

[eurasianthai]

It's my understanding that The Ministry of Culture, about a year or two ago undertook the task of monitoring all internet traffic

Right, big part of the budget.

Talk about priorities.

No wonder young Thai people know nothing about Thai culture...

[ronz28]

having previously worked for the Thai government, I can safely say that no-one would be interested in what a bunch whinging of expats said. Even if they were interested, there is absoultely no co-ordination and follow through in most places in government, so if TV has ever been a website d'jour for the censors, you can be pretty certain of the fact that it would litterally be for one day and one day only.

This sounds absolutely correct to me.

And it could be your lucky/unlucky day.

However, there is not enough people in government to monitor everything on the internet but they have computer sniffers to focus on words they are interested in regarding terrorist activities and refer that to human analysts.

[eurasianthai]

but they have computer sniffers to focus on words they are interested in regarding terrorist activities and refer that to human analysts.

You're American, are you?

This is sure not what they monitor in Thailand...

[walterego]

Of course it is... like everything else.

However if you sit under a table surrounded by wooden house doors and wear an aluminium foil hat I think you will be pretty safe when you type.

[PattayaParent]

but they have computer sniffers to focus on words they are interested in regarding terrorist activities and refer that to human analysts.

You're American, are you?

This is sure not what they monitor in Thailand...

Just don't type the word bomb in any of your posts or they'll be at your front door before you can hit the 'Add reply' button.

Or in the case of Thailand the word k**g

Edited February 20, 2010 by PattayaParent

[eurasianthai]

Well, I do not even know how to reply to this blasphemous post...