Big-Data Challenge

By+Li+Li

this year， for the first time in history， people were able to watch the worlds largest annual migration of people， the holiday rush before the Chinese Lunar New year， also known as the Spring Festival， in real time.

Five days before the festival， which fell on January 31， Chinese search giant Baidu launched an online， real-time map of the migration at Qianxi.baidu.com， which was updated hourly based on the average traffic of the previous eight hours. The digital map illustrated which paths were the most common and provided detailed information such as where people leaving the big cities were heading to， and which cities and provinces received the largest number of new arrivals， among other interesting insights.

According to Baidus press release， the information is built on data from the more than 3.5 billion daily positioning requests sent to the companys location-based service（LBS） open platform through products that use its positioning technology and services， including Baidu Map mobile app.

Although the migration map is no longer being updated after the end of the Spring Festival holiday， the event triggered enormous interest in “big data，” which had never been so vividly visualized in the media.

Big data is a relatively recent term that has been coined to describe the easy-tofollow trail of digital footprints Internet users inevitably leave behind revealing who they are， what they buy， where they go， and much more. In this new era of Internet use， an astronomical amount of data is collected， shared and processed by website companies.

“Every one of us contributes to this massive data pool. It is estimated that by 2020 an ordinary Chinese family will produce data equivalent to half of the information stocked in the National Library of China，” said Tang Xiongyan， chief engineer of the Research Institute of China Unicom， one of the countrys three largest telecom service providers. The National Library of China in Beijing is the largest library in Asia and one of the largest in the world， having accumulated a collection of over 31.19 million volumes of books by 2012.

The most visible utilization of big data is the tailored pop-up advertisements based on information about Internet users shopping preferences， according to Zheng Ning， an associate law professor at the Communication University of China. She said that enormous potential in using this information to attract customers exists for insurance companies， healthcare providers and telecom service providers among others.endprint

Merits and risks

Before Baidu launched its online migration map， the company tried the technology out on a smaller scale by tracing pedestrians around subway stations， shopping malls as well as drivers on the roads in Beijing.

According to Gu Weihao， Chief Technology Supervisor of Baidus LBS department， the data collected through these three channels could be used by the government to improve the efficiency of utilities around subway stations and better allocate public resources within a business circle. It can also help drivers to find the best route to a destination by avoiding traffic congestion， he added.

yet these opportunities bring with them increasing challenges related to security and privacy.

Following reports by state broadcaster China Central Television on the rampant underground sex trade in Dongguan of south Chinas Guangdong Province， on February 9， many people were intrigued to find out where the “customers” and prostitutes are from by observing popular destinations that people left Dongguan for on Baidus migration map. This triggered many people to voice concerns whether or not their own travel routes were being collected and recorded by Baidus migration map.

Baidu immediately responded by issuing a statement on its official microblog， saying that location data had been collected from hundreds of thousands of apps using Baidu LBS services， but that the data had also been made untraceable by stripping any personal identifiers from it.

While people feel reassured， at least for now， about any perceived privacy risks caused by Baidus location services， it has become clear that the era of big data may endanger privacy even more than the Internet did in the past.

“I feel that my personal data are being collected without my permission and manipulated by other people all the time，” Du Kai， a resident in Beijing， told Legal Daily. “My search queries have been exploited to the extent that within half an hour after I search for a certain product， advertisements for similar products will appear on the Web page of my microblog.”

Some people even pessimistically deny the possibility of fully protecting ones privacy in the big-data era.

W a n g y u e ， founder of MTrend Group， an Internet industry consulting firm based in Beijing， told China National Radio that the leaking of users information occurs as soon as one starts to surf the Internet. He warned that when even banks and telecom companies cannot keep their clients information safe， regular Internet companies， however circumspect， cannot ensure safety of personal data.endprint

Wang said that， in the future， people will become used to the fact that their data are collected and sold without their knowledge and that they receive some free or inexpensive services provided through the use of big data in return.

Companies that have been collecting and analyzing big data， such as Baidu， are almost unanimous in emphasizing the anonymity of their datasets. However， in cases where these companies fail to safely store personal information， the consequences can be disastrous.

On December 21， 2011， a text file with information on 6 million users of the Chinese Software Developer Network （CSDN）， allegedly the countrys largest network for programmers， was leaked on the Internet. The information included user names， passwords， and e-mail addresses， some of which were also used for online shopping， dating， gaming， social networking， and even financial service websites.

Some CSDN members continued to fall victim to the theft of their account deposit at shopping websites， even after the suspected hacker was arrested the following February， as their information was illegally sold to other cyber criminals.

New legal frontier

Zhang Xinsheng， Secretary General of the China Institute of Communications， said that in countries with a more advanced development of big-data technologies， laws on protecting privacy in the new context have already been promulgated， which entail the full responsibility of companies using big data when their use causes privacy leakage.

However， some scholars argue that although necessary in the long run， the conditions for introducing legislation on big data are immature in China.

“The development of big data will take a long time. While many legal issues still face raging debates， it is too early to adopt a law on this matter. Right now China needs a personal information protection law more urgently，” said Zheng with the Communication University of China.

Zheng emphasized that the personal information protection law should address issues like to what extent individuals own their personal information， whether the “notice and consent”principle in protecting privacy can be upheld and how individuals should resort to the legal aid when their privacy is violated.endprint