They just gave it a more fancy, palatable name for the modern information era.
Human trafficking.
As for the people being kept as NPC's - it likely relates to the whole 'save us' plot-line, Syndicate may very well be people who were once alive, became trapped as NPC's, and then broke free 'Matrix Style' and are looking to stop being recaptured or somehow escape the system.
It was mentioned in a previous update that dead bodies remain in the 'game' until the user logs in again. If the user dies in real life too, or dies in game and never logs in again, what happens to that body?
Get your recycle on.