{"id":154,"date":"2025-11-02T21:34:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/?p=154"},"modified":"2025-11-02T21:34:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:34:05","slug":"why-the-right-to-privacy-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/why-the-right-to-privacy-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Right to Privacy Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In China, \u201crights\u201d are not, for many people, a particularly important idea\u2014let alone the right to privacy. Even when people realize their privacy has been violated, it\u2019s hard for them to think, \u201cone of my rights is being infringed,\u201d rather than merely, \u201cmy feelings are hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my view, there are three kinds of privacy rights: (1) our privacy vis-\u00e0-vis other people, (2) our privacy vis-\u00e0-vis companies, and (3) our privacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state. It\u2019s obvious that Chinese people take \u201cprivacy vis-\u00e0-vis other people\u201d seriously, and most also know that prying into others\u2019 private lives is wrong. In this respect, there\u2019s no real difference from other nations\u2014even if many don\u2019t see defending their own privacy as defending a right. At times, I even feel the demand for privacy is greater than elsewhere. For example, privacy screen protectors are especially popular, even among people who don\u2019t handle secrets, despite the film degrading display clarity. Many women also like to wear \u201csafety shorts\u201d (modesty shorts worn under skirts) to guard against exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to \u201cprivacy vis-\u00e0-vis companies,\u201d however, Chinese people are less attentive. When certain corporate figures say, while infringing people\u2019s privacy, that \u201cChinese users are willing to trade privacy for convenience,\u201d that claim is understandably hard to accept. In recent years the government and some companies have introduced many privacy measures, and these firms advertise their \u201cachievements.\u201d Yet public awareness still isn\u2019t where it should be. When people notice that something they just typed in one app quickly shows up as recommendations in a completely unrelated shopping app, many are surprised\u2014but few are alarmed or angry. Only a tiny minority are willing to push back: for instance, the handful of residents or zoo visitors who sued over face recognition being the only way to enter a housing compound or attraction. Many people still happily \u201cscan their face,\u201d use domestically made input-method apps (keyboards) that explicitly collect user data, and buy phone brands widely known to harvest user information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for \u201cprivacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state,\u201d the concept is sorely lacking. In the real world, even those who dare to fight for privacy against companies often fall silent when it comes to the government. Plenty will rage online that Li Yanhong (\u674e\u5f66\u5b8f, Robin Li) is invading privacy, and entrepreneurs like Li Shufu (\u674e\u4e66\u798f) have publicly claimed that Ma Huateng (\u9a6c\u5316\u817e, Pony Ma) \u201cpeeks at everyone\u2019s WeChat messages.\u201d But on the Chinese internet you rarely hear accusations about violations of privacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state. In other words, many people think: Ma Huateng mustn\u2019t read my chats\u2014but if even the lowest-level officer at a local police station (p\u00e0ich\u016bsu\u01d2) sees them, that\u2019s no big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long ago, the so-called \u201conline ID\u201d system (w\u01cengzh\u00e8ng, an \u201cinternet identity\u201d scheme) was introduced\u2014at least on the surface\u2014to further standardize companies\u2019 collection of personal data and prevent abuse. Legal scholar Lao Dongyan (\u52b3\u4e1c\u71d5) voiced a worry that this would infringe privacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state\u2014a legitimate concern. Predictably, she was soon attacked by \u201cLittle Pink\u201d (xi\u01ceo f\u011bnh\u00f3ng, nationalist pro-government internet users) and other forces. Raising such concerns is precisely the social responsibility of a public intellectual; trying to shut one up is far more harmful. Although Lao Dongyan made a poor call on the \u201cLianshui Vocational School \u2018fake genius\u2019 Jiang Ping\u201d case (she believed Jiang Ping was a great genius; that viral story was later widely questioned), and revealed a certain na\u00efvet\u00e9\u2014hardly uncommon among public intellectuals\u2014we shouldn\u2019t question everything she does because of one mistaken judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people have effectively given up their privacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state. Their go-to lines are: \u201cI have nothing to hide,\u201d \u201cI haven\u2019t done anything suspicious,\u201d \u201cI have a clear conscience\u201d\u2014or that they aim to be a \u201cdignified, upright Chinese person\u201d. The same routine appears with so-called \u201cnational champion\u201d firms like Huawei\u2014hardly any Huawei users worry about whether their privacy is being violated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some time ago, a cybersecurity company investigated hidden cameras in vacation rentals in Shijiazhuang. In one video, the investigators told two young women that their room had a hidden camera\u2014and it was live-streaming. Astonishingly, one of them said, \u201cLet them film, it\u2019s fine<\/a>\u201d (at 3:59 in the video), leaving the investigators stunned. We can only guess why she was so indifferent. Did she truly want her every move in that room live-broadcast to thousands of strangers\u2014mostly leering creeps? Was she an exhibitionist? I think, in that instant, she fell back into the cul-de-sac of \u201cI have nothing to be ashamed of.\u201d Either she imagined the person behind the camera as \u201cBig Brother\u201d or wanted to signal she wasn\u2019t a lesbian (n\u01dat\u00f3ng, slang). To reassure Big Brother\u2014or merely to avoid being mistaken as lesbian\u2014does that justify live-streaming your room to countless people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the real question is: Why do Chinese people clearly value privacy vis-\u00e0-vis other individuals, yet fail to extend that to companies and the state?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put plainly, it\u2019s because many lack the ability for abstract thinking in the domain of rights. By abstract thinking I mean the ability to think apart from concrete, intuitively graspable situations. Of course, Chinese people aren\u2019t inherently short on abstract thinking, but something blocks it when we talk about rights\u2014or privacy rights. We all know it\u2019s wrong to pry into others\u2019 privacy, and wrong when others pry into ours. Parents who want to peek at a child\u2019s diary or phone messages typically do it secretly rather than openly, because they know it\u2019s wrong. A pervert caught peeping into a women\u2019s restroom risks a furious beating from those present. In these scenes, the invasion of privacy is highly intuitive, so people clearly recognize it as wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the realm of privacy vis-\u00e0-vis companies, people are less clear-eyed; in privacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state, many abandon thinking altogether. The main reason is that the ways companies and the state intrude on privacy are not intuitive: there\u2019s no pair of eyes peering from a dark corner, no visible hidden camera. Data collection happens automatically inside our smart devices, quietly in the background. Your phone\u2019s notification bar doesn\u2019t pop up a banner saying, \u201cApp X is extracting your private data right now.\u201d Your WeChat group chat doesn\u2019t flash a reminder that Big Brother just reviewed the messages here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, plenty of women will adamantly refuse to let a boyfriend see their social-media histories, yet accept companies or the state helping themselves to that data. Some defend this by saying that companies use \u201cbig data\u201d and, to some extent, anonymize personal info\u2014so even if they collect it, they don\u2019t really know who \u201cI\u201d am. Others argue this is simply the business model of the internet: the platforms are free, and users must hand over data in exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These claims have some truth. But as for corporate data collection, I stand firmly with Apple and the European Union: users must have the maximum possible right to know and to control. In particular, users should be able to refuse to have their usage data sold or transmitted to third parties, thereby preventing almost every internet company from freely acquiring it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to privacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state, though, those defenses don\u2019t hold. Citizens pay taxes and fund the state; they aren\u2019t getting \u201cfree\u201d government services in exchange for data. Of course, for national security, security services must maintain a general monitoring net to prevent terrorism and other crimes. But that monitoring must be lawful, constitutional, and proportionate. Especially: only in specific circumstances and through proper legal procedures may law enforcement listen to the contents of a particular person\u2019s communications. They must not arbitrarily monitor anyone\u2019s communications content. Yet because many Chinese are inclined to think the state is omnipotent, it\u2019s hard for them to engage in abstract thinking here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a story that, a few years ago, Chinese officers walked into an Apple Store with the phone of a fallen corrupt official and asked ordinary retail staff to unlock it so they could inspect its contents. This suggests those officers were quite unfamiliar with the very idea of privacy rights: how could a frontline retail employee possibly have the authority to unlock a phone? Strangely, these agencies would rather spend money tinkering with hopeless cracking tools than contact Apple for assistance. In principle, with a formal search warrant, Apple would cooperate. Incidents like this give us no reason to believe law-enforcement bodies will protect people\u2019s privacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state when people themselves don\u2019t care about it. When the PRISM program in the U.S. was exposed, public trust in national-security agencies plummeted, which in turn forced those surveillance projects to be more restrained and kept more firmly on a rule-of-law track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, I won\u2019t list in detail why the right to privacy matters or why we must defend it, because I believe most people already know\u2014those who cherish privacy vis-\u00e0-vis other people should recognize that privacy, whether against individuals, companies, or the state, is the same right. At bottom, we do value privacy. There\u2019s no need to debate why \u201cI have nothing to hide\u201d is an invalid reason to surrender privacy: it\u2019s a non sequitur. In ordinary circumstances, you do not need\u2014and should not be required\u2014to surrender a basic human right in order to prove you haven\u2019t done anything \u201cwrong.\u201d In matters of rights, people need a measure of abstract thinking to elevate an intuitive defense of privacy into a defense of rights themselves and of personal dignity\u2014to realize that non-intuitive violations of privacy can have far more frightening consequences. Whether done openly or in secret, whether by other individuals, by companies, or by the state, an invasion of personal privacy is an invasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In China, \u201crights\u201d are not, for many people, a particularly important idea\u2014let alone the right to privacy. Even when people realize their privacy has been violated, it\u2019s hard for them to think, \u201cone of my rights is being infringed,\u201d rather than merely, \u201cmy feelings are hurt.\u201d In my view, there are three kinds of privacy rights: (1) our privacy vis-\u00e0-vis other people, (2) our privacy vis-\u00e0-vis companies, and (3) our privacy vis-\u00e0-vis the state. It\u2019s obvious that Chinese people take \u201cprivacy vis-\u00e0-vis other people\u201d seriously, and most also know that prying into others\u2019 private lives is wrong. In this respect, there\u2019s no real difference from other nations\u2014even if many don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/right-to-privacy.png","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-criticism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/right-to-privacy.png?w=1600&resize=1600,1019&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/on-the-shanghai-marriage-market\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":0},"title":"On the Shanghai Marriage Market","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"09\/20\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"What many Chinese people may not know is that the Shanghai Marriage Market is internationally famous, and it\u2019s a spot many foreign travelers to Shanghai make a point of visiting. It has a detailed English Wikipedia entry, yet not even a Chinese one. Several English-language travel sites have written how-to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural Criticism","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/cultural-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DSC_102020250119.jpg?w=1920&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DSC_102020250119.jpg?w=1920&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DSC_102020250119.jpg?w=1920&resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DSC_102020250119.jpg?w=1920&resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DSC_102020250119.jpg?w=1920&resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DSC_102020250119.jpg?w=1920&resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/eating-while-looking-at-your-phone\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":1},"title":"Eating While Looking at Your Phone","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"09\/13\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"One afternoon, I was installing a custom Rom on my phone. Even though it was a 2024 model, it still only had USB 2.0, so data transfer was painfully slow\u2014and I had a lot to back up and restore. Dinner time rolled around and the job still wasn\u2019t done, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-05-06-11.15.45-.png?w=1024&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-05-06-11.15.45-.png?w=1024&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-05-06-11.15.45-.png?w=1024&resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-05-06-11.15.45-.png?w=1024&resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":99,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/is-china-a-collectivist-society-or-an-atomized-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":2},"title":"Is China a Collectivist Society or an Atomized One?","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"04\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Is China a collectivist society or an atomized one? As I was reading through various academic papers, I noticed some scholars still describe China as a collectivist society, while others have already picked up on its growing atomization. On online forums and insightful blogs, it's rare to find anyone still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural Criticism","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/cultural-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":82,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/on-loneliness\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":3},"title":"On Loneliness","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"01\/23\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Loneliness is the destiny of human beings, an unavoidable and fated part of life. Since the 19th century, many philosophers, writers, and psychologists have expressed this attitude from different perspectives, such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Thomas Wolfe, Jean-Paul Sartre, Hannah Arendt, and Irvin Yalom, among others. Regardless, the belief that loneliness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/lonely-bench.jpg?w=1920&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/lonely-bench.jpg?w=1920&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/lonely-bench.jpg?w=1920&resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/lonely-bench.jpg?w=1920&resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/lonely-bench.jpg?w=1920&resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/lonely-bench.jpg?w=1920&resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":142,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/lacan-in-the-matchmaking-ad-postmodernism-and-feminism-through-the-lens-of-costly-signaling-theory\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":4},"title":"Lacan in the Matchmaking Ad: Postmodernism and Feminism Through the Lens of Costly Signaling Theory","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"09\/29\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"One day, I happened to see a WeChat Offical account post a matchmaking ad for a young woman. For various reasons of relevance, I clicked in with interest. Three things caught my eye: first, she required the man to provide a marital home in Shanghai; second, she refused premarital sex.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural Criticism","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/cultural-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/Peacock_Flying.jpg?w=1920&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/Peacock_Flying.jpg?w=1920&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/Peacock_Flying.jpg?w=1920&resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/Peacock_Flying.jpg?w=1920&resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/Peacock_Flying.jpg?w=1920&resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/Peacock_Flying.jpg?w=1920&resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/learning-to-smile\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":5},"title":"Learning to Smile","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"12\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Years ago, when haze enveloped many cities in China, we wore N95 masks when we stayed outside. One problem I soon noticed was that we couldn't see each other's expressions on their faces when we wore the masks; if I smiled, others didn't know it, and vice versa. A friend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}