ROTTERDAM, March 12 -- An unprotected database in China with the personal information of more than 1.8 million women — including their phone numbers, addresses and even a "BreedReady" status — has been uncovered by a Dutch cyber expert. The researcher with non-profit group GDI. foundation, found the insecure data detailing the women's identity numbers, education and marital status while searching for open databases in China over the weekend. He shared his findings in a series of partially redacted screenshots on Twitter in the hope of sourcing more information. "When we do, we will share this." He later told the Times the database was taken offline on Monday afternoon. It is still unclear what "BreedReady" actually means — some observers speculated it could be a poor English translation of women who are at a "child-bearing age", while others argued it meant women who "have children". According to the reseacher's findings, the youngest woman in the database was just 15 years old, while the oldest was 95. About 82 per cent of the women lived in Beijing. The database also showed that nearly 90 per cent of the women were single and their average age was 32. The discovery is timely in the context of Chinese government scholars' recent findings that the country is set to face a long period of "unstoppable" population decline after an expected peak of 1.44 billion people in 2029. While China abolished its controversial "one-child policy" aimed at curbing population growth in 2016 — allowing couples to have two children — the growth rate continued to slow in 2018. Numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics in January showed new births in China fell to 15.23 million in 2018 — nearly 2 million fewer than 2017. 'This is horrifying'Chinese netizens were quick to draw comparisons between the database and the television show The Handmaid's Tale, based on a dystopian future where women are forced to reproduce to repopulate a world facing a plummeting birth rate. "It's just so weird … they even have ID numbers, phone numbers, home address and even indication of whether [they are] breed-ready. This is horrifying," wrote a Weibo user with the nickname Haidaidaiya. But other users on the social media platform took the opportunity to rebuke Western media for criticising China. "There are too many liars and some idiots really don't have enough wisdom — some western media are not dumb, but devious," another user with the nickname Lansedecaochong posted on Weibo.
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