Nothing Left to Hide

Europeans are freaks about Internet privacy. U.S. computer users are concerned, but generally less so. The Chinese, however, have become very comfortable about sharing routine personal data.
The subject came up in a recent talk I had with David Kenny, the polymath chief executive at the Digitas digital ad agency, which was bought by Paris-based Publicis. "I've spent a lot of time in China, and I'll tell you the Chinese culture is not so afraid of data," he said. "They're used to enrolling in things, they are used to keeping track. The average Chinese is in 15 loyalty programs. Therefore I think we'll see things like social networks (and the procurement of data for advertising targeting on social networks) work more effectively in China."
I mentioned that decades of routine government spying on citizens' everyday life must have inured the average, apolitical Chinese computer user to privacy worries. Kenny didn't want to take the discussion in that direction - but he didn't disagree, either.

--Russ Mitchell