經濟學人精讀 The Economist62上

最新 01-31

【第一遍】邊聽邊讀

READING WHILE LISTENING

經濟學人精讀The Economist [62]

選自January 272018 China板塊

Data privacy

Public pushback

Consumers and tech firms are taking privacy more seriously.The government is not

XU YUYU was a poor 18-year-old student from the coastal province of Shandong when, on the eve of going to university in 2016, she was defrauded of the savings that her family had painstakingly accumulated for her.She died of a heart attack that was caused, a court said, by the fraud. Ms Xu』sfate sparked an impassioned debate in China about data privacy because the scammer, Chen Wenhui, had paid a hacker for stealing her personal details. Hewas sentenced to life in jail for theft of private information.

China has a reputation for lax controls over the gathering ,storage and use of digital data about individuals. But sensitivities about such matters are growing, and not just when information is stolen.

This month a court in the eastern city of Nanjing agreed to hear a case brought by a government-controlled consumers』 group against Baidu, China』s largest search engine. The group claims that a Baidu app illegally monitors users』 phone calls without telling them. At the same time, Ant Financial, the financial arm of Alibaba, the country』s largest e-commerce group, apologised for a default setting on its mobile-money app that automatically enrolled customers in a credit-scoring scheme, called Sesame Credit, without users』 consent.The third of China』s big three internet firms, Tencent, also dealt with a storm of criticism after the head of one of China』s largest car firms said Pony Ma, Tencent』s founder, 「must be watching」 all messages on WeChat, the firm』s popular social-media app, 「every single day」.

Consumers in China have good cause to worry. Data collected through one medium can often end up in another. A man who talked on his mobile phone one day about picking strawberries said that when he used his phone the next day to open Toutiao, a news aggregator driven by artificial intelligence(AI), his news was all about strawberries. His post on the experience went viral in January. Toutiao denied it was snooping but conceded, blandly, that the story revealed a growing public 「awareness of privacy」.

Cultural evolution

Anxiety about it is indeed growing, but from a low base. The Chinese word for privacy,yinsi, has a negative connotation of secrecy.Things that in the West are taboo in conversation between strangers—forexample, asking about the other person』s salary—are often discussed in China.

Such traditions inform behaviour in the digital world. TheBoston Consulting Group says that in a dozen countries it surveyed in 2013, three-quarters of respondents outside China stated that caution was necessary when sharing personal information online. But only half of those polled inChina agreed. In 2015Harvard Business Review, a journal, tried to estimate what value people in different countries attached to personal data. It found that Chinese would pay less to protect data from their government-issued identification cards and credit cards than people from America, Britain and Germany. More than 60% of respondents in a large survey conducted byChinaYouth Daily, a state-owned newspaper, said that the default settings in their mobile apps allowed their personal information to be shared with third parties. Chinese law did not define what counts as personal information until a cyber-security bill took effect last year.

Two things are helping to change public attitudes. One is rising concern about online fraud, a huge problem in China. A survey in 2016by the Internet Society of China found that no less than 84% of respondents said they had suffered from some form of data theft. The number of cases seems to be rising. In 2017, according toLegal Daily, a newspaper, the police investigated 4,900 cases of theft of personal information, resulting in the arrests of over 15,000 people. That is twice the number of cases and four times as many suspects as in the previous year. Worries about data theft are not the same as concerns about privacy. But the two sentiments often overlap.

The other big change is the surprising emergence of China』sinternet companies as lobbyists for better data protection, even though their motives are mixed. On the one hand, the data they are scooping up from consumers are becoming an ever more prized commodity. The companies want to use the data in pursuit of global dominance in the business of AI. So they have an incentive to collect as much data as possible and support lax data-protection laws. On the other hand, consumers in China are demanding tighter protection, while their counterparts in the West, where the Chinese companies are trying to expand their business, have even greater privacy concerns.

For the past year, companies have been debating how to strike the right balance. Now, it seems, consumer pressure may be winning out. Frank Fan, a data-security expert, argues that recent events will prove a turning point. 「In the future,」 he says, 「data-protection policies will determine whether a company will succeed or not.」 Nie Zhengjun, Ant Financial』s chief privacy officer (yes, they have one) claims that Chinese consumers are 「no longer content with preventing information from being used for fraudulent purposes...Now they want control in protecting their privacy.」

The question is how these shifts in consumer attitudes and company behaviour will affect the government, which is gathering vast quantities of personal information without the public』s consent. This includes DNA datataken from millions of people, including all inhabitants of the western province of Xinjiang. The government』s aim is to use the data to help it to strengthen social control.

In 2017 the government launched an inspection campaign examining the privacy policies of ten internet firms. At least five were found to have improved data protection by making it easier for users to delete personal information. This enabled the government to boast about the security of China』s data-protection laws and claim that it was making personal information safe from criminals.

At the same time, however, the cyber-security law required that copies of all personal data gathered by operators of 「critical information infrastructure」 in mainland China must be stored there. This has fuelled suspicions that the government wants to be able to gain access to them, either covertly or by putting pressure on data-storage companies. At the end of February, Apple will comply with the new law by handing management of the data of iCloudcustomers in China to a state-owned company. (The American firm insists that「no back doors will be created into any of our systems」 and that it will ensure「strong data privacy」.)

In the long run, the public』s growing concerns about privacy must be at odds with the government』s efforts to create a new form of surveillance state. But the Communist Party shows no sign of concern: it seems to be able to have its cake and eat it. It is tightening data-protection rulesfor companies, while making it easier for itself to grab more private information.

【第二遍】博學審問

INTENSIVE READING

經濟學人精讀The Economist [62]

選自January 27 2018 China板塊

#Eva導讀#

在過去，中國消費者對個人數據隱私的重視程度似乎不如其他國家，但是對個人隱私保護的意識的確在逐漸增強。隨著社交媒體和手機app的應用，個人信息在未經用戶允許或未告知用戶的情況下，被手機app平台利用，監控用戶行為，或與第三方分享，也使得有不法分子利用非法獲取這些個人隱私數據謀財。直到去年網路安全法案生效，中國法律才開始定義對個人信息進行了定義。

未完待續…

#以上，個人總結和理解，歡迎批評指正，歡迎留言討論

#有輸出才有進步

Data privacy[數據隱私]

Publicpushback[公眾阻力]

Consumers and tech firms are taking privacy more seriously. The government is not[消費者和科技公司更加嚴肅地對待隱私。政府並沒有]

XUYUYU was a poor 18-year-old student from the coastal province of Shandong when, on the eve of going to university in 2016, she was defrauded of the savings that her family hadpainstakingly[悉心地，精心地]accumulatedfor her[徐玉玉是來自沿海省份山東省的一名18歲的貧困學生，2016年在她要上大學的前一晚，她的家庭悉心為她積攢的學費被騙走了].She died of a heart attack that was caused, a court said, by the fraud[法院說，她因受到詐騙而引起心臟病發作，導致死亡].MsXu』s fate sparked animpassioned[熱烈的]debatein China about data privacy because the scammer, Chen Wenhui, had paid a hacker for stealing her personal details[徐女士的遭遇在中國引發了有關數據隱私的激烈爭論，因為詐騙人陳文輝向黑客付錢盜竊了她的個人詳細資料].Hewas sentenced to life in jail for theft of private information[他因盜竊個人隱私信息被判無期徒刑].

China has a reputation forlax[不嚴格的，不嚴厲的]controls over the gathering, storage and use of digital data about individuals[中國在個人電子數據的搜集、儲存和使用方面有著管理鬆懈的名聲].But sensitivities about such matters are growing, and not just when information is stolen[但是，對這類事件的敏感程度在增加，並且不僅僅是在信息被盜竊的時候].

This month a court in the eastern city of Nanjing agreed tohear a casebrought by a government-controlled consumers』 group against Baidu, China』s largest search engine[這個月，在東部城市南京的一家法院同意審理由政府控制的消費者團體起訴百度的案件，百度是中國最大的搜索引擎].The group claims that a Baidu app illegally monitors users』 phone calls without telling them[這個團體聲稱百度手機應用在沒有告知他們的情況下非法監控使用者手機通話].At the same time, Ant Financial, the financial arm of Alibaba, the country』s largest e-commerce group, apologised for a default setting on its mobile-money app that automatically enrolled customers in a credit-scoring scheme, calledSesame Credit, without users』 consent[與此同時，中國最大電子商務集團阿里巴巴的金融部門螞蟻金融，為其手機移動應用軟體的默認設置道歉，該設置未經用戶同意自動將用戶註冊到叫做芝麻信用的信用評分系統中].The third of China』s big three internet firms, Tencent, also dealt with a storm of criticism after the head of one of China』s largest car firms said Pony Ma, Tencent』s founder, 「must be watching」 all messages on WeChat, the firm』s popular social-media app, 「every single day」[中國三大互聯網公司的第三個企業騰訊，也在處理大量的指責，因中國最大汽車企業之一的老闆的說騰訊創始人馬化騰「一定在看」微信上「每一天」所有的信息，微信是騰訊最受歡迎的社交媒體軟體].

Consumers in China have good cause to worry[中國消費者有充分的理由擔心].Data collected through one medium can often end up in another[通過一個媒介收集到的數據通常會出現在另一個媒介].Aman who talked on his mobile phone one day about picking strawberries said that when he used his phone the next day to open Toutiao, a news aggregate driven by artificial intelligence (AI), his news was all about strawberries[一位男士有一天在他的手機中談論了有關採摘草莓的信息，當第二天他用手機打開頭條時，他的新聞全部都是有關草莓的，頭條是一個用人工智慧驅動的新聞網路信息整合平台].His post on the experience went viral in January[1月份，他發布的這個經歷受到的廣泛關注].Toutiaodenied it was snooping butconceded[承認], blandly, that the story revealed a growing public 「awareness of privacy」[頭條否認它在窺探，但是，溫和的承認了這個古樹揭露了大眾「隱私意識」的增強].

Culturalevolution[文化發展]

Anxiety about it is indeed growing, but from a low base[關於這一點的焦慮確實在增長，但是起點很低].The Chinese word for privacy,yinsi, has a negativeconnotation[隱含意義]ofsecrecy[中文中的「隱私」有不好的秘密隱含意義].Things that in the West aretaboo[忌諱的]in conversation betweenstrangers—for example, asking about the other person』s salary—are often discussed in China[].

Such traditions inform behaviour in the digital world[比如，詢問其他人的薪水，在西方國家陌生人對話中忌諱的東西，在中國是經常被談論的].TheBoston Consulting Group says that in a dozen countries it surveyed in 2013, three-quarters of respondents outside China stated that caution was necessary when sharing personal information online[波士頓諮詢公司稱聲，2013年其調查的十幾個國家中，中國之外四分之三的回復者認為在網上分享個人信息時是需要引起注意的].But only half of those polled in China agreed[但是，在中國僅有一半的人這麼認為].In2015Harvard Business Review, a journal, tried to estimate what value people in different countries attached to personal data[2015年哈弗商業評論期刊嘗試估計不同國家的人對個人數據的持以什麼樣的重視程度].It found that Chinese would pay less to protect data from their government-issued identification cards and credit cards than people from America, Britain andGermany[結果發現，中國人相比於美國人，英國人和德國人，對政府發行的身份證件和信用卡數據的保護最少].Morethan 60% of respondents in a large survey conducted byChina Youth Daily, a state-owned newspaper, said that the default settings in their mobile apps allowed their personal information to be shared with third parties[國有報刊中國青年報的一項大型調查中發現，超過60%的回復者說他們手機應用中的默認設置允許他們的個人信息被第三方分享].Chinese law did not define what counts as personal information until a cyber-security bill took effect last year[直到去年網路安全法案生效，中國法律才開始定義什麼算作是個人信息].

Jan29 553 words

【第三遍】辭彙總結

VOCABULARY TAKEAWAY

【painstakingly】

in a way that shows you have taken a lot of care or made a lot of effort

精心地；悉心地，刻苦地

She painstakingly explained how the machine worked.

她悉心地解釋這台機器是如何運轉的。

【impassioned】

Impassioned speech or writing is full of strongly felt and strongly expressed emotion.

（講話或文章）充滿激情的，熱烈的

Relatives of the dead made an impassionedpleafor the bodies to be flown back to this country.

死者親屬強烈懇求將屍體空運回國。

【lax】

not severe or strong enough

不嚴格的；不嚴厲的

He took a gun through baggage control to highlight the lax security.

他攜帶一把槍通過了行李檢查，以此引起大家對安全管理鬆懈這一問題的重視。

【concede】

to admit, often unwillingly, that something is true

（常指不情願地）承認

[+(that)]The government has conceded(that)the new tax policy has been a disaster.

政府承認新的稅收政策是徹底失敗的。

[+speech]"Well okay, perhaps I was a little hard on her," he conceded.

「好吧，也許我對她是有點苛刻，」他承認道。

【connotation】

a feeling or idea that is suggested by a particular word although it need not be a part of the word"s meaning, or something suggested by an object or situation

內涵意義；隱含意義；聯想意義

The word "lady" has connotationsofrefinement and excessive femininity that some women find offensive.

lady一詞有優雅和過分嬌柔的涵義，因此某些女性覺得該詞具有冒犯意。

【taboo】

an action or word that is avoided for religious or social reasons

（宗教或社會習俗方面的）禁忌，忌諱；禁忌的，忌諱的

In this society there is a tabooon/againstany sort of public display of affection.

在這個社會裡，人們忌諱當眾示愛。

英文原文選自《經濟學人》

單詞釋義來源：劍橋字典網頁版https://dictionary.cambridge.org

文章僅供英語學習參考，不作其他用途

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