Wang Xiangwei

China Briefing | China has a privacy problem. New data laws could help curb the worst abuses – but not all of them

From pinhole cameras in hotel rooms to undeclared facial recognition cameras in shops, there is a thriving industry in China that makes money from blatant invasions of privacy

A draft Personal Information Protection Law and other legislation should help combat the problem – but don’t expect it to trump national security or business interests

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Chinese authorities have launched periodic crackdowns in the past, but an illicit marketplace for personal information has continued to proliferate. Photo: Shutterstock

Wang Xiangwei

Published: 9:30am, 10 Apr 2021Updated: 10:16am, 10 Apr 2021

Fans of James Bond will be familiar with scenes showing the British spy sauntering into a hotel room, before looking around and using a handheld counter-intelligence device to sweep for bugs and hidden cameras.

Well, given the scale and multitude of privacy violations in China these days, it’s smart to be as alert as Bond. If possible, arm yourself with a bug detector next time you plan to check into a hotel or Airbnb, visit a changing room or have a massage – chances are high that you might just find a hidden camera.

One of the most egregious examples of this came to light late last month, when a Guangdong TV report revealed the story of a young couple in Shenzhen, who had been living in their rented flat for six months before they discovered the pinhole camera hidden in their bedroom’s air conditioning unit.

The shocked couple were reportedly so fearful of what might happen next that they chose not to report the incident to the police, instead completing a thorough scan of their next rental home before moving in.

Their traumatic experience is sadly not unique. An investigative report published on Tuesday by a newspaper in Shandong uncovered a sophisticated network of criminal enterprises that build, modify and install pinhole cameras, the footage from which they upload and sell online. For just 188 yuan (US$29), an undercover reporter was given access to live-stream video feeds from 30 homes at once, with the option to specify hotel rooms, shop dressing rooms or beauty parlours for a slightly higher fee. The report did not say if the police had been informed.

A 2019 photo of a button camera found in a Uniqlo fitting room in Shenzhen. Photo:thepaper.cn

This is just the latest example of a thriving industry in China that makes money from blatant invasions of privacy – made possible both by a lack of awareness on the part of the victims, and weak protection and enforcement on the part of the government. The authorities may have launched periodic crackdowns in the past but an illicit marketplace for personal information has continued to proliferate, largely because Chinese people have willingly provided their information when shopping online and making increasingly popular mobile payments.