展出30萬個人信息,中國藝術家遭警方調查

BEIJING — Deng Yufeng wanted to create art that prods people to question their lack of data privacy. What better way, he reasoned, than to buy the personal information of more than 300,000 Chinese people off the internet and display it in a public exhibition?

北京——鄧玉峯想通過藝術創作鼓勵人們去質疑自己的數據隱私缺失。他想的是，還有什麼辦法比從網上購買30多萬人的個人信息，並在公開展覽中展出更好呢？

The police did not appreciate the irony.

警方不喜歡這種諷刺。

Last week, the authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan shut down Mr. Deng’s exhibition in a local museum after two days and told him that he was being investigated on suspicion of amassing the information through illegal means.

開展兩天後，武漢市當局於上週關閉了鄧玉峯在當地一家博物館的展覽，並告訴他因爲他涉嫌通過非法手段收集信息，正在對他進行調查。

Mr. Deng’s project coincides with a growing debate about the lack of data privacy in China, where people are starting to push back against tech companies and their use of information. Online brokers regularly, and illegally, buy and sell personal information online. Chinese people are often bombarded with calls and text messages offering bank loans or home purchases that seem too personalized to be random.

鄧玉峯推出這一項目之際，關於缺乏數據隱私的討論正在中國不斷升溫。人們開始反抗科技公司和它們對信息的使用。網絡信息販子頻繁地在網上非法買賣個人信息。中國民衆經常受到推銷銀行貸款或房屋買賣的電話和短信轟炸。它們看上去非常具有針對性，不可能是隨機的。

Mr. Deng, a 32-year-old artist based in Beijing, said he hoped to get Chinese people to question that everyday scenario.

32歲的鄧玉峯是北京的一名藝術家。他說他希望讓中國民衆質疑這種司空見慣的景象。

“When these nuisance text messages become a daily routine, we develop a habit of ignoring and avoiding these text messages in a numb state,” he said in a telephone interview. “This is actually the mental state of most people here: a state of helplessness.”

“當這些討厭的短信變成常態時，我們養成了麻木地無視和避免這些短信的習慣，”鄧玉峯在接受電話採訪時說。“這其實是這裏大部分人的精神狀態：一種無助的狀態。”

Last month, Robin Li, the chief executive of the search giant Baidu, set off a firestorm when he said that Chinese people were willing to trade privacy for convenience, safety and efficiency. In December, the software developer Qihoo 360 angered many internet users when a blogger discovered that the company was taking surveillance footage from restaurants and gyms in Beijing and broadcasting it without permission onto its platform.

上月，搜索巨頭百度的首席執行官李彥宏因爲說中國人願意用隱私交換便利性而引發了一場風暴。去年12月，軟件開發商奇虎360激怒了很多網民，因爲一名博主發現，該公司監控北京多家餐廳和健身房，並未經允許在其平臺上播出監控畫面。

The rising public anger is taking place amid a similar debate in the United States, over Facebook. But Beijing officials keep the volume lower because personal data is broadly available to another powerful constituency: the Chinese government. Tech companies cooperate with the police in handing over information, with few questions asked. Citizens are resigned to the fact that they are tracked by the government, and there is little pushback about the increased state of surveillance.

在美國，Facebook引發了一場類似的討論，公衆的憤怒日漸加劇。但北京官方壓低了民衆的聲音，因爲還有一股強大的力量可以盡情取用數據：中國政府。科技公司配合警方交出信息，幾乎不提出質疑。公民對被政府追蹤的事實聽之任之，監控升級幾乎沒受到什麼阻力。

So six months ago, Mr. Deng started buying people’s information, using the Chinese messaging app QQ to reach sellers. He said that the data was easy to find and that he paid a total of $800 for people’s names, genders, phone numbers, online shopping records, travel itineraries, license plate numbers — at a cost at just over a tenth of a penny per person.

因此六個月前，鄧玉峯開始利用中國的即時通訊應用QQ聯繫賣家，購買人們的信息。他說這些數據很容易找到，他總共花了800美元（約合5000元人民幣）購買人們的姓名、性別、電話號碼、網購記錄、旅行日程和車牌號碼，獲取一個人的信息成本略高於一分錢。

He said he knew he was breaking the law. He wanted to prove a point.

他說他知道自己是在犯法。他想借此來證明點什麼。

“Artists are not merely aesthetic creators,” Mr. Deng said. “In the very complicated state of our world today, we should also bear social responsibility.”

“藝術家不僅僅是美學創作者，”鄧玉峯說。“在今天這個錯綜複雜的世界裏，我們也應該承擔社會責任。”

At his exhibition, called “346,000 Wuhan Citizens’ Secrets,” he printed the pieces of personal data on sheets of paper using a special liquid solution. The sheets were hung in neat rows and columns on a wall. Museumgoers could only see the data under a special light source, and key identifying details were redacted.

在名爲“34.6萬武漢公民的祕密”的展覽上，他用一種特殊的溶液把一條條個人信息印在紙上。紙張橫豎整齊地掛在一面牆上。只有在特殊的光源下參觀者才能看到相關信息，並且關鍵的身份細節被進行了模糊化處理。

According to Mr. Deng, plainclothes police officers took him away on April 6, two days after his exhibition opened. They told him that he was being investigated for the buying of citizens’ information online and was barred from leaving Wuhan. When reached for comment, a Wuhan-based police officer from the station investigating the case said she did not know anything about it and hung up.

據鄧玉峯說，開展兩天後的4月6日，他被便衣警察帶走。他們告訴他，因爲他在網上購買公民信息，他們正在調查他，他不得離開武漢。在致電負責調查此案的警察局請求置評時，一名警察說她對此事一無所知，並掛斷了電話。

Under Chinese criminal law, Mr. Deng faces up to seven years in jail. But Raymond Wang, a lawyer who specializes in data security, said he believed it was unlikely that Mr. Deng would be sentenced because there were no “damaging consequences.”

依據中國的刑法，鄧玉峯最高會被判處七年有期徒刑。但專門研究數據安全的律師王新銳說，他認爲鄧玉峯不太可能被判刑，因爲沒有造成“嚴重後果”。

Whether Mr. Deng’s exhibit will catch the attention of China’s leaders isn’t clear. But Legal Daily, an official, government-run publication, said Mr. Deng’s project showed how the existing laws on the protection of personal information were weak and enforcement was poor.

不清楚鄧玉峯的展覽會不會引起中國領導人的注意。但政府經營的官方刊物《法制日報》說，鄧玉峯的藝術計劃表明，現有的保護個人信息的法律還不夠，執法不力。

“The organizer’s purpose was to call for the protection of personal privacy, and he himself violated the law to purchase personal information,” the newspaper wrote in an opinion piece. “Due to the complexity of the plot, it will make for a lively legal lesson.”

“主辦者的目的是呼籲保護個人隱私，而自己卻違法購買個人隱私，”該報在一篇評論文章中寫道。“由於劇情較爲複雜，這堂法治課也更爲生動。”

The privacy project is just one of Mr. Deng’s many works of art touching on social issues. He has gone undercover to investigate the kidnappings of children, a major problem in China. He has also worked on a project on how people buy fake identification cards and guns.

這個隱私計劃只是鄧玉峯諸多涉及社會問題的藝術作品之一。他曾臥底調查拐賣兒童問題。這是中國的一個大問題。他還做過一個有關如何購買假身份證和槍支的計劃。

Mr. Deng pointed out that the lack of data privacy was also a global problem.

鄧玉峯指出，缺乏數據隱私也是一個全球性問題。

With the help of volunteers, Mr. Deng sent about 10,000 text messages to the people whose information he used in the exhibition, inviting them to come.

在志願者的幫助下，鄧玉峯向信息在此次展覽中展出的人發了大約10000條短信，邀請他們觀展。

One of them was not amused, according to Mr. Deng, responding back: “You’re sick.”

其中一個人並不覺得好笑。據鄧玉峯說，此人回覆他：“有病吧。”