Perspectives on Collecting User Privacy

Origins

Today while watching the news, I heard the anchor mention that the makers of the famous game Angry Birds were collecting user privacy data, including names, genders, email addresses, geographic locations, marital statuses, sexual orientations, and more—and providing this information to foreign intelligence agencies.

Main Text

Seizing the opportunity, my dad decided to lecture me—he never misses a chance to do so, though he usually ends up being the one getting lectured by me, and this time was no exception—“See how many bad people are out there? Don’t use your real name online; use a screen name instead.” So, I repeated to him what I’d once told someone else:

First, it’s important to clarify that personal data leaks are absolutely unavoidable. The real difference lies in whether your personal information is being collected by those with ulterior motives for undisclosed, socially harmful purposes.

Government surveillance is omnipresent—there’s no escaping it if you don’t want to be monitored. Forget about America’s “Prism scandal”; China’s surveillance measures are certainly no weaker than those of other countries (just look at the uniquely strict ID card and household registration systems).

I won’t delve into the scope of privacy or how certain entities collect user behavior for commercial purposes—this is all outlined in the Terms of Service or User Agreements that you must agree to when using any software. You voluntarily trade your personal information for the right to use the software.

Here are my speculations:

1. What we see on CCTV-12—how the police investigate and solve cases—is all content approved for public viewing. But the technical aspects, like tracking someone across thousands of miles or pinpointing a specific individual in a sea of people, are trivial in the information age—and something most people aren’t meant to know.

2. It’s already known that the government maintains a “dossier” for every citizen with ID card information. Every detail of a person’s life—from birth to death, birthplace, childhood residences, elementary school, middle school, high school, university awards, academic performance, workplaces, marital status, personal financial status—is meticulously recorded. Each life stage has a designated recorder, and the records are handed over to the next custodian as time progresses. In reality, both physical and digital archives exist in the information age.

3. The government creates an “electronic dossier” for every citizen with ID card information. Any account you register using your ID—QQ, Weibo, Renren, gaming accounts—is logged. Even if only one account is registered under your real name and linked to your ID, it’s recorded in your personal electronic file. Other accounts, if logged in simultaneously beyond a certain threshold, are also attributed to you. For example, if you register and verify Weibo with your ID, and you happen to log into QQ while browsing Weibo, repeated instances of this will associate the same IP address with your identity. Some might say, “I use a VPN or proxy to bypass the firewall—surely the government can’t track that?” Well, the methods remain the same. Your online behavior can always be traced across accounts, enabling surveillance. Our powerful government requisitions this information in the name of social security—dare you refuse?

4. In the information age, privacy is an illusion. It’s like using your computer and thinking your Administrator account has the highest privileges—free to delete or install anything—only to realize there are files you can’t access. That’s when you discover the existence of a “system” user with even greater authority. You don’t know if your password is truly secure or if some superuser can read and analyze it. The only truly safe secrets are those kept in your mind or written down and hidden by yourself. Once shared, you can never be sure what happens to them.

5. Managing a country of over a billion people and preventing societal collapse is no easy task—strong measures are necessary.

6. Socialism is the only system suited to China’s national conditions. If capitalism were adopted without a strong central government, China would likely still be embroiled in internal strife.

7. The above is all conspiracy theory!
   P.S.: Any instances of ** in the text should be read as “ZF.”

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