The End of Mob Rule on the Internet in China? Hardly

Posted on September 3, 2008
Filed Under China Internet, China Law, Security | Leave a Comment

THE “Human flesh search engine” - the idea of mobilizing thousands of individuals to dig out facts and expose them publicly - may no longer be a fun game to play as a draft amendment now bans government staff from seeking and publicizing private information.

Several high profile scandals in China had seen the online vigilantes of the “human flesh search engine” engaging in what amounted to cyber lynchings of individuals and their reputations.

In the draft amendment submitted to the country’s top legislature last week, government staff face from one to six months in a detention center or three years’ in jail for the most serious cases.

“The amendment has focused on individual interests, which is a big change and a giant step forward in protecting personal information,” said Liu Renwen, professor of law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

…The existing law only bans staff in the post office from hiding, or dumping mail and telegrams.

The new amendment extends the scope of the application and is a positive move to meet the demands of citizens in an evolving society, said Li Han, a law graduate from Beijing Normal University.

The “human flesh search engines” (sadly not as naughty as it sounds) are self-appointed judges, juries and executioners of their victims. Their targets are people, usually seen on the internet, who have done something objectionable, or have displayed extraordinary insensitivity, or are deemed to have done something vaguely anti-Chinese or anti-China.

In BBSs and forums they post all the information they can find about the victim. Generally they find out quite a bit: where someone works, lives, their telephone number, email, etc., etc. Then they hound and harass the unfortunate.

It’s an interesting internet phenomena, a shared vehicle for retribution. Not only do its participants bring justice to the unjust, it’s a collaborative, mutually affirming process. And it works, victims have gone into hiding because of it. It’s a heady, addictive brew. No wonder it caught the government’s attention.

The law that is under consideration (at least how Shanghai Daily describes it), has little to do with the vigilantes. It’s designed to punish government employees who reveal private data. This may be some kind of indicator of the participation of those government employees in human flesh search engining, but no one really knows.

But the law will do little to control the compilation of data by private companies. The article gave an example of a woman who felt harassed by a gym where she registered, but didn’t join. The law will do nothing to help her.

Nor will the law do anything to stop the theft and commercialization of data. Poorly secured data in hospitals has been stolen and government databases have been hacked.

In China’s rush to be e-everything or i-marketed mountains of data have been formed. They are poorly secured (if at all) and their are no guidelines on the management and retention of that data. It’s ripe for abuse, either by the online mob or data-mining companies.

The same personal data management problem can be found, to varying degrees, everywhere. What’s interesting is that the human flesh search engines seem to be a uniquely Chinese experience, at least in their virulence and prevalence. The government has made a small step to securing private data, but it is missing the larger point: vigilantism is a response to a perceived gap in meting out justice. Personal privacy considerations aside, this is a symptom of a bigger social issue.

I wonder what the government is going to do about that?

Can the iPhone 3G Save TD-SCDMA?

Posted on September 3, 2008
Filed Under China Business, Mobile | Leave a Comment

The Financial Times reports (hat tip Telecom Asia):

The head of China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone group, said the country’s homegrown third generation mobile technology was “a few years behind” other international standards because of problems with handsets.

…Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile’s chairman and chief executive, said: “[TD-SCDMA’s] network operation is normal but there are still a lot of problems. Problems remain in handset choices, quality, performance and prices, where most users complained.

“Compared with other 3G technologies, TD-SCDMA is still a few years behind.”

While there certainly have been plenty of stories about handset problems, the China Economic Review makes an interesting point:

The head of China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone group, said the country’s homegrown third generation mobile technology, TD-SCDMA, was ‘a few years behind’ other international standards because of problems with handsets.

(Which is interesting because although there has been much criticism of the handsets most of the complaints have been about the spottiness of the coverage and that is NOT a function of the design or build of the handset.)

For whatever reason, there seems to be a growing consensus that TD-SCDMA apparently sucks eggs. China Mobile had better sort this out, as its rivals are ready to blow a lot of cash and roll out tried and tested CDMA2000 and WCDMA networks within a year or so. But China Mobile, with a huge user base, may have a shiny, small, white knight to save the white elephant. MacNN, citing the 21st Century Business Herald, reports:

Apple and China Mobile are in fact in the “final stages” of negotiations for brining the iPhone to China, writes the state-owned 21st Century Business Herald. The account follows a report from China Communications, which claimed similar progress in talks, and that China Mobile was ready to provide a hefty subsidy, similar to that provided in other countries. The assistance is particularly important in China, where the majority cannot afford an unsubsidized smartphone.

CMiC: can’t afford an unsubsidized iPhone? The hacked models that are everywhere here cost more than the base US$199 price for the new 4GB iPhone 3G. I doubt that your average farmer in Jiangxi is the target customer.

It’s not that the technical problems of TD-SCDMA can be solved by the iPhone, even Steve Jobs can’t do that. It’s the absolute berserk frenzy that a TD-SCDMA-enabled, cheapish, iPhone 3G would cause. The hacked older model iPhone has become a common accoutrement for China’s mobilerati. Imagine their reaction to a GPS-enabled 3G model.

A big China Mobile-Apple iPhone 3G announcement for the China market would quickly bury all the negative press over TD-SCDMA performance with an avalanche of gee-whiz press coverage and Apple’s cool cachet. China Mobile should move quickly to make the deal.

So cheer up Mr. Wang, positive media hype is only a phone call away (er, you may want to use your landline, though).

Digital China Wants to Watch You

Posted on September 2, 2008
Filed Under China Business, China Law | Leave a Comment

The South China Morning Post reports:

Digital China Holdings, the mainland’s largest distributor of information technology products, says a newly formed joint venture that starts operations next month will launch an initial public offering in a few years and bring in technology from its Israeli partner.

In July, Digital China said it would inject 500 million yuan (HK$572 million) and its Digital China Information Technology Service unit into the venture. Partners China Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Ventures (CSVC) and Infinity i-China Investments of Israel will inject another 500 million yuan.

“CSVC and Infinity I-China Investments will have a 23 per cent stake in Digital China Information Technology, which will be valued at 2.15 billion yuan and targets an initial public offering before June 2012,” said Wycee Liu Yuqing, the general manager of the corporate communications and planning division.

Ms Liu said the firm would add resources to its IT services business and target large local customers such as banks, telecommunications operators and government departments.

The Infinity Fund is an Israeli private equity fund. They, along with the big Israeli holding company IDB, set up the I-China fund in 2004. They summarize their activities:

Based on the success of the 2004 Infinity-CSVC fund, Infinity has expanded and focused fund efforts on its Israel-China strategy. Infinity’s investing activities today are centered around value created when capitalizing on synergies between Israeli technology businesses and Chinese manufacturing/service companies.

They have a stable of Israeli high tech companies that are either looking to China as a market or as a manufacturing platform. The SCMP article notes that Digital China hopes to provide integration services for Infinity-invested Mate’s “intelligent video” surveillance solution in China. Digital China identified finance, telecom, and government as the three sectors unaffected by a tightening credit market in China. No bonuses for guessing which one will soon be receiving brochures in the mailbox.

The article also mentioned the simmering Microsoft anti-monopoly lawsuit rumor:

The company, which generated 3 per cent of revenue from selling Microsoft products, is not worried about a possible mainland investigation of the US software giant for alleged anti-competitive practices.

“A lawsuit that may be filed by [Beijing] against Microsoft will not be resolved in one or two years,” Ms Liu said. “Even though Microsoft may be fined or restricted from doing business on the mainland, Digital China will not be affected as we have many other suppliers.”

One or two years? Does Digital China’s Ms. Liu know something about how all this will play out?

Kingsoft Sinks AV Pirates

Posted on September 1, 2008
Filed Under China Business, China Internet, Security, Software Piracy | Leave a Comment

China Tech News reports:

Kingsoft has released its Q2 financial report and interim report, which say that the company’s revenue increased by 42% to CNY346.8 billion in the first half of 2008 with online games and software contributing 66% and 34% of the total revenue, respectively.

…In the first half of 2008, Kingsoft’s software business made revenue of CNY116.3 million, a year-on-year increase of 87%. The main reason for the rapid growth is because of the increase of the user number of its anti-virus product. So far, about 8.7 million users use its anti-virus product daily, which increased 63% compared with the same period last year.

Kingsoft uses a subscription model for its anti-virus software. The software is free, but the virus pattern updates cost RMB10/month (just under US$1.50). It’s even cheaper through deals for customers of some banks.

For the anti-virus business at least, this is the easiest way to stick it to the software pirates. Giving away the software and charging a market-friendly fee for the updates pretty much blows any incentive for piracy out of the water.

Making a marketing deal with Bank of China and China Construction Bank is even smarter. The most serious malware out there is designed to target accounts for online banking and gaming. It’s a no-brainer at RMB7.5/month (a little over a buck).

Xiamen: We Don’t Need No Stinking WiFi

Posted on September 1, 2008
Filed Under China Internet, Mobile, Wireless Networks | Leave a Comment

China Tech News reports:

China Mobile (CHL) has signed a wireless cooperation memo with the Xiamen Municipal Government to build a wireless city.

Unlike other Chinese cities which adopt Wi-Fi and WiMAX technology is their wireless construction, Xiamen will become the first wireless city in China that based on the TD-SCDMA/HSDPA network. This is also the first time for China Mobile to enter China’s wireless city construction sector, making it face close combat with its rivals, China Telecom and CETC-Chinacomm.

According to Xiamen’s government, the TD-SCDMA/HSDPA network has covered over 800 square kilometers of the city and the wireless services will be officially opened from September 8, 2008. By then, local residents will be able to browse government websites free of charge with their TD-SCDMA mobile phones or notebooks with TD-SCDMA network interface cards within the coverage of the wireless network. Special regions, including libraries, airports and convention and exhibition centers, where people can gain free Internet access, will be opened to the public at the same time.

I’m interested in how the billing will be handled for all this. If they want to provide free access in “special regions”, they’ll have to work out exceptions for user’s data volume billing plans. And free access to government web sites? Who cares.

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