Concerns About The Commoditization of Personal Privacy

-- By ChengyuanZhou? - 24 Oct 2024

The Life Without Privacy

Every a few days I can receive phone calls like: "Do you need a small loan?", "we offer medical insurance for students, are you interested?" and "you can enjoy great discounts if buying a house from us." These calls come far away from China and seem to know a lot about me. They know my name, profession, home address, and even the social ID number. It’s scary, isn’t it? However, Sales calls are just a basic form of privacy violation. As big data technology impacts all walks of life, from trivial matters such as clothing, food, housing and transportation to social reforms and movements, scattered, massive and fragmented personal information is quickly and effectively integrated and analyzed by commercial companies.

Baidu is China's largest search engine company. Its president Robin Li once said: "Chinese people are more open to privacy issues and are willing to exchange privacy for efficiency and safety." The truth is that they have no option. Every first time you open an app, a window called “User Agreement and Privacy Policy” will be popped up. You cannot use it without clicking to agree. All the apps which are necessary for daily life are designed like this, and no alternative channels can be found. We passively enjoy the convenience of sharing privacy with companies and governments, and undertake the risk of being exploited by capitalists.

Abuse of Personal Information in the bid data era

Nowadays, the collection of personal information is no longer limited to basic information such as phone numbers, home addresses, and browsing history. Facial recognition is increasingly used in mobile payments and personal identification. Electronic cars are recording your driving habits and road information all the time. Personal information of litigants are even used in courts to predict litigation outcomes with the help of artificial intelligence.

The abuse of commercial use of personal privacy can be mainly divided into two categories: Sales of personal information and the Depiction of user pictures. The illegal sale of personal information is a very serious problem in China. Although the sale of personal information is illegal, there has already been a fairly mature underground trading market in China. All kinds of information are clearly marked with price, including mobile phone numbers, ID numbers, bank statements and hotel records. Such things is happening all over the world. In April 2021, it was revealed that the personal information of hundreds of millions of Facebook users from over 106 countries was leaked online. There was also a significant data leak which affected approximately 500 to 700 million LinkedIn? user accounts as reported in 2021. It is obvious that big tech companies are incapable of protecting their users’ personal information effectively.

A common usage of user pictures is calls “big data killing” in China, which means that different customers see different prices for the same products or services. A well known example is the purchase of airline tickets. The more more times you open the app to check a particular flight, the higher the price you will get. Customers who use the software for the first time often get the best price, while the frequenters are punished for their loyalty at the same time. User pictures are a perennial topic, as we all know. With the development of big data technology, after scattered data is input, effective connections are formed, turning data fragments into data networks, which can reveal a person’s lifestyle and consumption habits. What’s more, many apps collect users’ information without their knowledge. They can secretly get access to camera and microphone in mobile phones, and browse your search record as well as the chat record.

The Regulation of the Commercial Use of Privacy Information

The way to get authorization from users to make use of privacy information should be altered. "Registration is deemed to agree to the Privacy Policy and the Cookie Agreement", such statement should not be displayed when users open a new app for the first time. They cannot be denied access simply because they disagree with the user agreement. Basic functions must be provided to users under any situation. Users must be informed that what type of information would be gathered and what third parties would get such data. Tech companies have to disclose their specific algorithms of how to deliver advertisements to consumers. Although some regulations such as GDPR published by EU say that algorithms need to be transparent and interpretable, it is still not enough to let average customers know under which situation they can see advertisement according to their preferences. Additionally, do companies really need so much personal information to run their business? Companies collect your information for the purpose of making best profits, not serving consumers, especially under the situation of providing differential treatment. What’s more, convenience is overemphasized in our world. In China, Face recognition has become an important means of payment and social governance. Schools and residential buildings use face recognition to manage people's access by cooperating with commercial companies, which raise doubt about the necessity of doing so. From the ex post perspective, users must have the right to require companies to delete their personal information completely, including that has been shared with the third party. Also, in light of the concealment of infringement and the complexity of tortfeasors, companies must bear the burden of proof to prove that users’ privacy is not abused. In general, there are numerous ways to limit the misuse of personal information. The question lies on whether those in power would take these measures really. They care much more about economy, convenience and social governance, not privacy.

Why should you ever see an advertisement on a computer at all? I don't, you needn't. What would happen if you didn't? What effect would there be on your mind and your spirit? What effect would the impossibility of advertising to you have on the data-collection habits of those with whom you interact?

You aren't in China: you're here. Why not adapt your technology in this society to provide all the freedom from surveillance and advertising that you can't experience there? Perhaps a draft actually addressing the technical realities rather than the sterile "surveillance v. convenience and privacy v. safety" dichotomies favored by the platforms and the autocrats would be helpful. If it motivated you to try living in a different style here in the US, imagine the potentially revolutionary consequences....

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