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China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

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Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#61
post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

This is exactly why Square exists: Data.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#62
post #35

China is fascinating. On one hand... - China has done better than any other country on Earth at poverty reduction. Chinese policy since Deng Xiaoping lifted hundreds of millions of people out of subsistence poverty. Free markets were a big part of this, but so were Special Economic Zones starting with Shenzhen, a culture of sharing IP, massive govt investments in infrastructure, research and education. - China are al…

China is very interested in appearing successful. My impression is that they focus on this appearance (building large public projects, making internationally-tracked numbers go up) more than on the human costs involved.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#63
post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

I've found it interesting that in the press recently, you will usually find some discussion about privacy concerns regarding companies like Facebook/Google, but I very rarely see any mention of the privacy implications of credit card companies and credit bureaus selling customer data.

I'm admittedly not well informed on the subject but I assume this has been going on for decades, are there any consumer privacy laws around this? While I find Google data collection activities worrisome, I at least have some faith in their technical ability to keep that data safe. And unless I'm mistaken Google only sells targeted access but not the actual data which is what the credit card companies and bureaus do.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#64
post #37
post #35

China is fascinating. On one hand... - China has done better than any other country on Earth at poverty reduction. Chinese policy since Deng Xiaoping lifted hundreds of millions of people out of subsistence poverty. Free markets were a big part of this, but so were Special Economic Zones starting with Shenzhen, a culture of sharing IP, massive govt investments in infrastructure, research and education. - China are al…

Sorry, but judging by how things are going in western nations, especially in the USA, we're more likely to emulate their "mistakes and authoritarian overreach" before we even break ground on that rail from SF to LA.

Ground was broken on January 6, 2015, but perhaps your point is still valid.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_California_High-S...

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#65

As an American, I would never download a Chinese app like WeChat or use a digital service based in China.

Your computer on which you typed this comment was most likely made in China...

my clothers is made in China. so?

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your computer on which you typed this comment was most likely made in China...

my clothers is made in China. so?

The point is that tracking systems are often embedded in hardware.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#67
Even though this article is about data on Chinese citizens, I kinda wonder if the Chinese government doesn't keep a big database of what American folks are doing, too.

I mean, why not?

They've the got the hackers. They've got the big DB. They've got the absence of laws preventing such a practice.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#68
post #37
post #35

China is fascinating. On one hand... - China has done better than any other country on Earth at poverty reduction. Chinese policy since Deng Xiaoping lifted hundreds of millions of people out of subsistence poverty. Free markets were a big part of this, but so were Special Economic Zones starting with Shenzhen, a culture of sharing IP, massive govt investments in infrastructure, research and education. - China are al…

Sorry, but judging by how things are going in western nations, especially in the USA, we're more likely to emulate their "mistakes and authoritarian overreach" before we even break ground on that rail from SF to LA.

> before we even break ground on that rail from SF to LA

We already have, here's video of the construction: https://youtu.be/1lsiYkyEW0w

Monthly construction updates: https://www.hsr.ca.gov/buildhsr.html

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#69

As an American, I would never download a Chinese app like WeChat or use a digital service based in China.

Privacy is pretty much finished whether you are using a service from China or anywhere else. Given there are more surveillance to come in post-terrorism era.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#70
post #16
post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

The thing in China is that so many trivial daily activities require government-issued ID. Buying a coach/train ticket. Buying a SIM card. Every website/mobile app registration require a mobile phone number, which means any account is easily traceable to your government-issued ID, too. Hell, even visiting your friend in a hotel requires recording your ID before hotel staff will let you go upstairs (strictly enforced i…

There are always security/privacy trade-offs when it comes to applying policies. There are 1.4bn people in China. It has to take a much scalable approach to manage the population to ensure safety for average people and smooth functioning of a society. Especially given there is modern terrorism randomly seeks opportunities. Btw, not every app is interested in tracing you, and quite a few are giving options to email registration . And for Internet cafes, believe it or not, the gov set up ID-link was primarily to forbid children to go to there(most of them skip their classes to play games) since they have to wait till 16 yo to obtain a ID card.
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