Data security, privacy need increased focus

The internet of things and artificial intelligence will energize traditional industries, but more attention should be paid to data security and user privacy as the protection of personal information faces unprecedented challenges in the information age, said industry insiders and business leaders on Thursday.

Chen Lei, chief executive officer of Xunlei Ltd, a Chinese cloud-based acceleration technology company, said AI will bring about some creative job positions in traditional manufacturing industry, while the application of such cutting-edge technologies puts higher requirements on data and information security.

Chen made the remarks during a sub-forum at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2018, or Summer Davos, in Tianjin. "The core issue lies in the right of data usage, and ownership should be given to the public. We should establish a mechanism to ensure that our data, whether it is used by commercial institutions or governments, should benefit the society and users."

Zhang Lu, founding and managing partner of Fusion Fund, said the industrial internet promotes the integration of cutting-edge technologies with traditional industries, as well as improving the operating efficiency of existing fields.

"We don't need to fear that a large number of jobs will be replaced by machines as humans could be liberated from tedious tasks to do some more valuable work," Zhang said, adding the adoption of cutting-edge technologies in a range of industries poses ever-increasing challenges to data security and user privacy.

Technology makes it much easier for violators to steal and trade massive amounts of personal data. The Facebook privacy scandal, in which a political firm acquired the private information of more than 50 million Facebook users without their permissions, has raised people's concern on data security once again.

Zhang noted major tech companies have ramped up efforts to protect user privacy as data leakage may bring about social problems, and suggested the authorities formulate regulations to restrict the usage of data.

Last June, a new cybersecurity law came into force to tighten such areas as privacy of personal information and the Chinese government is continuing to reinforce the development of laws and regulations covering privacy.

"Big data security is one of the key research topics in the development of China's big data industry. A growing number of companies are expanding their businesses related to big data, which contains huge amounts of personal identifiable information. Adequate access control mechanisms are required to protect the data," said Zhong Xinlong, a consultant at Chinese research company CCID Consulting.