Tobacco.org

• EDITORIAL: Big Brother behind the smoke  

In the spring of 2008, the Tobacco Institute of Japan together with the associations of tobacco retailers and vending machine manufacturers introduced Taspo, "tobacco passport." At the time, the system seemed a reasonable enough solution to one of Japan's perennial problems -- underage smoking. However, Taspo now is reported to have found a new use -- helping investigators track down the movements of criminal suspects.

The Tobacco Institute of Japan, which oversees the Taspo system, revealed recently that personal data and records of specific tobacco purchases at Taspo-required vending machines were handed over to public prosecutors. . . .

One has to wonder whether the accumulation of data by businesses is for marketing research or for other purposes. When even the purchase of a pack of cigarettes becomes part of an information database, the surveillance of people's private lives by technological means has gone too far.

Jump to full article »