Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 30 November 2018
In China, your car could be talking to the government

By ERIKA KINETZ and eventually set auto-
Associated Press makers up for commercial
SHANGHAI (AP) — Global competition with a Chinese
automakers are feeding government entity.
real-time location informa- Ding said confidentiality
tion and dozens of other agreements protect pro-
data points from electric prietary company informa-
vehicles to Chinese gov- tion. Still, he is open about
ernment monitoring cen- his desire to make money
ters, potentially adding to from the data. "We have
China's rich kit of surveil- done some explorations,"
lance tools as President Xi he said. "But there is still a
Jinping steps up the use of distance from truly monetiz-
technology to track Chi- ing it."
nese citizens. Generally, it China's ability to grab data
happens without car own- as it flows from cars gives
ers' knowledge, The Associ- it an edge. China tends to
ated Press found. view technology develop-
More than 200 automak- ment as a key competitive
ers selling electric vehicles resource. Though global
in China — including Tesla, automakers have received
Volkswagen, BMW, Daim- billions in incentives and
ler, Ford, General Motors, subsidies from U.S., Euro-
Nissan, Mitsubishi and U.S.- In this June 22, 2018, photo, Shan Junhua chats about privacy near his white Tesla while charging pean and Japanese gov-
listed start-up NIO — send it in Shanghai. ernments, they are contrib-
at least 61 data points to Associated Press uting data to China that
government-backed moni- al information. tion from more than 1.1 mil- ernment doesn't need to ultimately serves Beijing's
toring platforms, under rules "You're learning a lot about lion new energy vehicles. surveil through a platform strategic interests.
published in 2016. people's day-to-day activi- Those numbers are about like ours," Ding said. Automakers stressed they
Automakers say they are ties and that becomes part to get much bigger, as Bei- Many vehicles in the U.S., share data to comply with
merely complying with lo- of what I call ubiquitous jing pushes electric vehicle Europe and Japan transmit Chinese law and obtain
cal laws, which apply only surveillance," said Michael development as part of its position information back consent from car owners.
to alternative energy ve- Chertoff, who was secre- "Made in China 2025" indus- to automakers, who feed Nearly all have announced
hicles. Chinese officials say tary of the Department of trial development plan. it to car-tracking apps, plans to aggressively ex-
the data is used for analyt- Homeland Security under Ding Xiaohua, the deputy maps that pinpoint nearby pand electric vehicle of-
ics to improve public safety, President George W. Bush director of the Shanghai amenities and emergency ferings in China, the world's
facilitate industrial devel- and wrote a book called center, said monitoring is services providers. But the biggest car market.
opment and infrastructure "Exploding Data." "Compa- not designed to facilitate data stops there. Govern- Volkswagen Group China
planning, and to prevent nies have to ask themselves, state surveillance, though ment or law enforcement chief executive Jochem
fraud in subsidy programs. 'Is this really something we data can be shared with agencies would generally Heizmann said he could
But critics say the informa- want to do in terms of our police, prosecutors or only be able to access ve- not guarantee the data
tion collected exceeds corporate values, even if it courts, if a formal request hicle data in the context would not be used for gov-
those goals and could be means otherwise forgoing is made. The center is reg- of a specific criminal in- ernment surveillance, but
used to undermine foreign that market?'" istered as a non-profit but vestigation and in the U.S. stressed that Volkswagen
carmakers' competitive At the Shanghai Electric is tightly aligned with and would typically need a keeps personal data, like
position, or for surveillance. Vehicle Public Data Col- funded by the government. court order, lawyers said. the driver's identity, secure
Under Xi's leadership, China lecting, Monitoring and Re- There is a privacy firewall Automakers initially resisted within its own systems.
has unleashed a war on dis- search Center, a wall-sized built into the system. The sharing information with the "It includes the location of
sent, marshalling big data screen glows with dots. data center has each car's Shanghai monitoring cen- the car, yes, but not who is
and artificial intelligence to Each represents one of unique vehicle identifica- ter; then the government sitting in it," he said, adding
create a more perfect kind more than 222,000 vehicles tion number, but to link that made transmitting data a that cars won't reveal more
of policing that can quick- connected to the system, with the owner's personal prerequisite for getting in- information than smart
ly neutralize perceived coursing along Shanghai's details, it must go through centives. phones already do. "There
threats to the stability of the roads to create a massive the automaker — a step it "They gave you dozens is not a principle difference
ruling Communist Party. real-time map that could has taken in the past. Chi- of reasons why they can't between sitting in a car
There is also concern about reveal where people live, nese law enforcement can give you the data," said and being in a shopping
the precedent these rules shop, work, and worship. also link the vehicle iden- a government consultant mall and having a smart
set for sharing data from Data also flows to a nation- tification number with the who helped evaluate the phone with you."
next-generation connect- al monitoring center run by owner's personal informa- policy and spoke on condi- But not all electric vehicle
ed cars, which may soon the Beijing Institute of Tech- tion. tion of anonymity to discuss owners feel the same.
transmit even more person- nology, which pulls informa- "To speak bluntly, the gov- sensitive issues. "Then we Standing beside his white
offer the incentives. Then Tesla Model X, Shan Jun-
they want to give us the hua said he might not
data because it's part of have bought the car if he'd
their profit." known its journeys were be-
There was concern the ing recorded.
shared data might reveal "Tesla could have it, but
proprietary information why do they transmit it to
about, for example, how the government?" Shan
/arubatoday/ hybrids switch between said. "Because this is about
privacy."q
gas and battery power,