Gamed by the System

American privacy advocates, and now more than one investigating committee of Congress, are looking at how Chinese requirements for online companies doing business in the PRC are contrary to America values. What’s worse, American companies may have contributed technology to enable China to enhance their surveillance systems and facial recognition software in a way that allows the PRC to track their population in extreme detail. Or us.

That China is spending half of the world’s research money on artificial intelligence should have us all concerned. The PRC has already begun keeping digital files on their citizens, rating their allegiance to the country by everything from what they watch and read to their facial expressions when dealing with patriotic teaching in school. Bad ratings, and the citizen loses privileges and cannot travel much, even within China. Good ratings and benefits flow. Scary, huh?

In the video game world, China is deeply concerned that young people are spending (wasting?) way too much time playing video games. Any company posting its games in China faces official demands to limit playing time and to censor offending content. Besides, China wants as much information on their citizens as they can glean. Control based on big data.

“Over the last year, one game company after another has quietly acceded to Chinese government demands to limit the amount of time young people spend on their games. Chinese players of American hits such as ‘League of Legends,’ ‘Fortnite’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ are having their playtime tracked according to their national ID number. Those younger than 18 face heavy in-game penalties or outright expulsions if they play too long.

“Although it’s Chinese policy driving the restrictions, data privacy advocates say that for Americans to participate in the creation of these tools represents the crossing of a concerning new threshold… They view the moves as part of a problematic trend of Western technology firms redesigning their services to create China-friendly versions aligned with the country’s tighter social controls.

“‘For American companies, it really comes down to deciding whether or not you are willing to participate in this type of surveillance,’ said Matt Erickson, executive director of the Digital Privacy Alliance. ‘If they do choose to take part, it makes these companies not unwitting but full-blown accomplices in the Chinese police state.’” James B. Cutchin writing for the Los Angeles Times, July 23^rd.

For American video game companies seeking growth, it’s hard to overlook a nation with lots of money and 1.4 billion consumers, especially as US markets max out. Gaming in the PRC is a $36.5 billion market. Maybe behemoths can pull out, but for smaller US gaming companies, losing the PRC market could spell a survival disaster. Here’s how it works: “Access to the world’s second-largest market is a powerful incentive, but for some companies, supporting Chinese censorship and social control efforts is not a matter of choice.

“As Chinese giants buy up American tech companies, from West Hollywood-based gay dating app Grindr to Motorola’s mobile phone business, regulators are raising questions about companies’ autonomy and ability to push back on requests that might violate their ethical principles… Internal documents from Riot Games obtained by The Times offer a rare glimpse into how the Chinese government exercises influence over companies beyond its borders.

“Tencent is the world’s largest game publisher and owns large or controlling stakes in a range of industry-leading developers including ‘Clash of Clans’ maker Supercell and ‘Fortnite’ developer Epic Games… Its self-developed title [pictured above], ‘Honor of Kings,’ was the world’s highest-grossing mobile game of 2018. The game’s success made it a lightning rod for growing Chinese government concerns of gaming addiction among Chinese youth, prompting Tencent to build its first ID-tracking playtime restriction system and pledge to incorporate similar systems on all of its games in 2019.

“A digital presentation circulated via email among developers at Riot’s Santa Monica headquarters called for an ‘AAS [anti-addiction system] upgrade’ for ‘League of Legends’ in China. The presentation, authored in China, framed the request alongside accounts of growing Chinese government criticism of the gaming industry, official media attacks on Tencent, and a stark reminder that ‘League of Legends’ ‘cannot [be] free from regulation.’

“The request specified the need for features tagging teenage players in accordance with ‘future AAS regulation.’ It also asked for the ability to kick certain players from the game at specified times and restrict time-based in-game rewards.

“The presentation’s author included mock-ups of ‘anti-addiction warning’ pop-ups on ‘League of Legends,’ with messages telling players they had reached their daily gaming limits or were forbidden to play between particular hours (9 p.m. to 8 a.m.)… It did not take developers long to produce the requested features. In a December 2018 post on Chinese social media site QQ, Riot China announced an update to ‘League of Legends’ including most of the changes.” LA Times. But that same tracking software can easily be used for other governmental purposes.

There are legal and ethical questions at bay, not to mention an underlying threat to our own national security as these technologies are turned against us. “Google left the country in 2010 amid disputes over censored search results and a major hacking incident. Last year’s revelation that the company had secretly begun work on a censor-compliant Chinese search engine, code-named Project Dragonfly, sparked an outcry from Google employees and U.S. politicians. (A Google official told Congress last week that it has terminated the project.)

“Facebook has reportedly given up on entering China after years of courting Beijing failed to win the company a reprieve from a 2009 ban.

“Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers have begun to call for an end to American investor money being channeled toward development of Chinese surveillance systems used in the repression of religious and ethnic minorities…

“‘There is no right to privacy in China,’ said Erickson, of the Digital Privacy Alliance. ‘Any information collected to make sure kids aren’t playing too many video games will definitely be used by the government and the police for whatever purpose they see fit.’

“Jack Poulson, founder of the advocacy group Tech Inquiry, says American tech workers — lacking visibility into executive-level decisions and other divisions of their sprawling conglomerates — aren’t always aware when they are participating in projects that might go against their values… ‘There’s no real protection in place to ensure that employees have an understanding of what they are helping build,’ he said.

“Poulson served as a senior scientist at Google’s research and machine intelligence department before publicly resigning last year in the wake of the Project Dragonfly revelations. He founded Tech Inquiry to help tech workers push back on unethical requests.” LA Times. So what should fuel our concern? That people with no legal expectation of privacy in another country far away are monitored with US software… or that this software could be turned against us here in the United States? Blowback.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and is privacy really possible anymore… what kind of control does monitoring private activities give a government that wants total adherence to it policies?