The Chinese regime’s control of large databases enabled the leaking of private information, and it’s hitting party officials like a ‘boomerang,’ analysts say.
News Analysis
The Chinese communist regime’s sweeping collection of private data has reentered public discussion after a 13-year-old girl sparked an internet storm by “opening boxes,” a Chinese cyber slang term for doxxing, or publicly revealing private or identifying information about someone without their permission.
The incident first gained public attention last month when the girl was suspected of obtaining the data from her father, Xie Guangjun, a vice president at Baidu, the technology conglomerate that dominates China’s search engine market. Baidu also operates a Chinese equivalent of Wikipedia and is a leading player in other areas, including video streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. “Opening boxes” implies that once someone’s information is out there, it’s like Pandora’s box has been opened.
Following an internal investigation, Baidu said that the girl had obtained the information from an overseas social engineering database via a messaging app with a name that began with “T,” not from her father or the company.
Several Chinese media outlets have reported that public servants, including the police, are involved in a data black market, which largely operates on the Telegram messaging app.
China experts and dissidents told The Epoch Times that the regime’s obsession with data collection has enabled the leaking of citizens’ private information, a double-edged sword for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as the black market has also been used to expose CCP officials accused of human rights abuses.
This recent high-profile “open box” incident also occurred against the backdrop of an intense idol-worshipping subculture among China’s youth, in which different fandoms often engaged in vicious online sparring wars.
On March 12, Chinese fans of a K-pop singer launched an abuse campaign against a pregnant woman over a comment she had made about the pop star. The woman’s private information was published online, and her family members were harassed online as a result. Several others who supported the woman were also doxxed in the following days.
On March 16, internet users found that a Canada-based account holder, who had been “opening boxes” appeared to be Xie’s daughter. The revelation raised concerns that executives of the tech giant can reveal anyone’s private information as they wish.
Xie confirmed on March 17 via the social media app WeChat that his teenage daughter had published private information that she had obtained from an “overseas social media website.” Xie apologized for failing to educate his daughter.
Baidu published a March 19 statement on Weibo saying that an internal audit confirmed that Xie didn’t have access to identifiable user data and that no unusual activities were found in his log. The company stressed that no employee has access to identifiable user data and that the girl had obtained data from an overseas social engineering database via the “T” app.
The Epoch Times reached out to Baidu for further comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
By Lily Zhou
