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American Respect for Privacy May Help in the Fight Against Mass Surveillance.

-- By ElaineHuang - 09 Oct 2020

Chinese Surveillance is Scary, But Not for the Chinese.

We have seen how data collection can impact behavior, and nowhere is that more evident than in the People’s Republic of China. While the Social Credit System has not yet been rolled out nationwide, certain localities have begun their own versions in which they reward those with good behavior and punish those with bad, and it is quite easy for authorities to do so in a country with hundreds of millions of surveillance cameras.

Surveillance in China has been even more evident during the pandemic. After being tested for COVID-19, Chinese people will get color codes on their phones that signify their health status and track the places they visit. Residential areas and university campuses also guard against the virus by using facial recognition software to prevent outsiders from entering. Admittedly, this surveillance does seem to have played a positive role in curtailing the spread of the virus in China, where cases have dropped significantly.

Even before the pandemic, however, many Chinese people have been enjoying the conveniences of these technologies in their daily lives. Shoppers no longer had to remember to bring their wallets or cash; they simply needed to bring their phones to stores to make a purchase via QR code. Others didn’t even need to bring their phones–they could pay via facial recognition.

Indeed, it is the benefits of surveillance that most Chinese focus on. When you talk to Chinese citizens about the Social Credit System, or surveillance in general, many respond that they feel much safer knowing that someone is watching out for crime, that public trust has increased, and that life has become more convenient. Many do not care that large companies have handed all of their data to the government as long as the public and private good gained outweighs the cognizable loss of control of their private data.

So Why Are They Not Scared?

Our cultural notions of privacy play a role in how we perceive this collection of our data. For us in the western world, where individualism and privacy are highly valued, surveillance capitalism has begun to sound alarms. The backlash from the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, as well as documentaries produced for the masses such as The Great Hack and The Social Dilemma, has brought these concerns into the minds of Americans. While the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly contain a right to privacy, certain aspects of privacy are indeed constitutionally protected, and so it is not too surprising that privacy is inherent to the American mind.

In contrast, Chinese people grow up with a lower expectation of privacy. Even as a Chinese-American–the American part allowing me more privacy than my cousins–I still grew up expecting my mom to open my mail before I got to it and to have her listening to my telephone calls on the other line. Many Chinese people do not miss privacy because they know little about it in the first place and therefore do not hold it to the same pedestal as, for example, Americans. Some Chinese, who are at least aware of the notion of privacy, simply disregard any concerns. As one woman interviewed by the New York Times stated, “Alipay already has all our data. So what are we afraid of? Seriously.”

The Good News: This is an Important Difference.

The current situation in America–providing personal data to companies like Facebook and Google–is more a result of a lack of awareness or understanding of the extent to which our data is being sold and our privacy is being invaded, rather than simply apathy. Unlike Chinese people, Americans have understood and valued privacy starting from a young age, and because we feel like we have more to lose, this may give us an advantage in the fight against this invasion of surveillance technologies.

The Bad News: We Still Have a Long Way to go.

Americans, despite appreciating privacy, post thousands of social media posts or location tags each year. Many of us don’t understand where our data is going and how it is then used to change our behavior. While we can demand better protections for our personal data via legislation, it may be faster for us to gain an understanding of how these companies collect our data, what they plan to use it for, and any limitations they place on the use of our data. This way we can give or refuse to give our informed consent. In contrast, right now, we are so eager to gain the convenience of some new service or site that we blindly hand over the rights to our personal information. However, as long as we can educate the American public to be aware of the risks, and if Americans truly care about their privacy, we will not allow our society to become the Big Brother dystopia that many see in a society under China’s Social Credit System.

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