WTF?! Exposed databases are nothing new, but a recently discovered Chinese dataset containing the information of 1.8 million women featured a sinister-sounding field: "breed ready." It's not known who was behind the database or its intention, but some believe it could be a government project related to the country's falling birth rates.

Security researcher Victor Gevers, who works for the Dutch nonprofit GDI Foundation, made the discovery over the weekend while trying to identify open databases in China.

In addition to names, physical addresses, phone numbers, age, education, and marital status, the database contained a column called “BreedReady,” which used a binary 1 for yes or 0 for no. It’s thought this could be an unflattering translation of whether the woman in question has children, but it’s more likely a reference to whether they are of child-bearing age.

The women in the database range from 15 to 95 in age, while those determined to be “BreedReady” are 18 to 39. 90 percent of the entries were described single and 82 percent were listed as living in Beijing.

Other fields included “political” and “has video,” along with links to some of the women’s Facebook profiles. The social network is banned in China, meaning they could have only created accounts using VPNs or while abroad.

While this database could have come from a hacked dating website, many believe it is the work of the government, which could be tracking fertile women. As noted by the BBC, the number of Chinese women aged 23-30 will drop by 40 percent in the next ten years, and with the country’s birth rate dropping rapidly, the government is trying to encourage more women to have children.

Following its exposure, some Chinese social media users made comparisons between the now-removed database and The Handmaid’s Tale TV show, in which a totalitarian society submits fertile women into child-bearing servitude.

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