Are you still in control?

Privacy
Personal data is collected every second, with every click, every move, and each decision you make. In this regard, the Chinese Communist Party ‘CCP’ insists on obtaining control of all data that a business or any organization generates. This line of thought follows the belief that with data, the government can build a more productive economy and make efficient and constructive decisions, based on ‘hard science rather than intuition’ (Kynge, 2021).
Prior to this, individuals believed that they are in control of the data they share and generate, however, the nation is now advancing to a data-driven empire; and the more information it has, the more powerful it becomes. In China, Kynge (2021) reports that personal data is a mixture of online interactions, shopping behavior, types of transactions, habits and routines, usage and intensity, and the most frequent interactions. This digital profile is developing through the legal regulations of providing data to the government, surveillance cameras, smart cities, digital money and modernized and technologically developed systems all over the country (Ma, 2018).
Change of System
Interestingly, China enforced a regulation that all information created in the country remains there. This results with multinationals establishing data centers to keep the Chinese customer’s data, which in turn, the government can access at any period they want. Tesla and Apple already issued a center for the products sold in China and is cooperating with this new law, in order to maintain the revenue stream and access a larger market.
However …
Will data prove to be a weapon or a shelter to authoritarian governance? How will digital sovereignty evolve over time? Will other countries follow the digital social card system to diminish tech giants’ power and gain more control?
After all, the danger of artificial intelligence and data collection is the asymmetric information the owner acquires.
References
Kynge, J., 2021. China and Big Tech: Xi’s blueprint for a digital dictatorship. Financial Times.
Ma, A., 2018. China is building a Vast civilian surveillance network – here are 10 ways it could be feeding its CREEPY ‘social credit system’. China is building a vast civilian surveillance network. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.nl/how-china-is-watching-its-citizens-in-a-modern-surveillance-state-2018-4?international=true&r=US [Accessed September 25, 2021].