展出30万个人信息,中国艺术家遭警方调查

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——邓玉峰想通过艺术创作鼓励人们去质疑自己的数据隐私缺失。他想的是，还有什么办法比从网上购买30多万人的个人信息，并在公开展览中展出更好呢？

The police did not appreciate the irony.

警方不喜欢这种讽刺。

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.

开展两天后，武汉市当局于上周关闭了邓玉峰在当地一家博物馆的展览，并告诉他因为他涉嫌通过非法手段收集信息，正在对他进行调查。

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.

邓玉峰推出这一项目之际，关于缺乏数据隐私的讨论正在中国不断升温。人们开始反抗科技公司和它们对信息的使用。网络信息贩子频繁地在网上非法买卖个人信息。中国民众经常受到推销银行贷款或房屋买卖的电话和短信轰炸。它们看上去非常具有针对性，不可能是随机的。

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

32岁的邓玉峰是北京的一名艺术家。他说他希望让中国民众质疑这种司空见惯的景象。

“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.”

“当这些讨厌的短信变成常态时，我们养成了麻木地无视和避免这些短信的习惯，”邓玉峰在接受电话采访时说。“这其实是这里大部分人的精神状态：一种无助的状态。”

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，搜索巨头百度的首席执行官李彦宏因为说中国人愿意用隐私交换便利性而引发了一场风暴。去年12月，软件开发商奇虎360激怒了很多网民，因为一名博主发现，该公司监控北京多家餐厅和健身房，并未经允许在其平台上播出监控画面。

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.

在美国，Facebook引发了一场类似的讨论，公众的愤怒日渐加剧。但北京官方压低了民众的声音，因为还有一股强大的力量可以尽情取用数据：中国政府。科技公司配合警方交出信息，几乎不提出质疑。公民对被政府追踪的事实听之任之，监控升级几乎没受到什么阻力。

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.

因此六个月前，邓玉峰开始利用中国的即时通讯应用QQ联系卖家，购买人们的信息。他说这些数据很容易找到，他总共花了800美元（约合5000元人民币）购买人们的姓名、性别、电话号码、网购记录、旅行日程和车牌号码，获取一个人的信息成本略高于一分钱。

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

他说他知道自己是在犯法。他想借此来证明点什么。

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

“艺术家不仅仅是美学创作者，”邓玉峰说。“在今天这个错综复杂的世界里，我们也应该承担社会责任。”

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.

在名为“34.6万武汉公民的秘密”的展览上，他用一种特殊的溶液把一条条个人信息印在纸上。纸张横竖整齐地挂在一面墙上。只有在特殊的光源下参观者才能看到相关信息，并且关键的身份细节被进行了模糊化处理。

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.

据邓玉峰说，开展两天后的4月6日，他被便衣警察带走。他们告诉他，因为他在网上购买公民信息，他们正在调查他，他不得离开武汉。在致电负责调查此案的警察局请求置评时，一名警察说她对此事一无所知，并挂断了电话。

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.”

依据中国的刑法，邓玉峰最高会被判处七年有期徒刑。但专门研究数据安全的律师王新锐说，他认为邓玉峰不太可能被判刑，因为没有造成“严重后果”。

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.

不清楚邓玉峰的展览会不会引起中国领导人的注意。但政府经营的官方刊物《法制日报》说，邓玉峰的艺术计划表明，现有的保护个人信息的法律还不够，执法不力。

“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.”

“主办者的目的是呼吁保护个人隐私，而自己却违法购买个人隐私，”该报在一篇评论文章中写道。“由于剧情较为复杂，这堂法治课也更为生动。”

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.

这个隐私计划只是邓玉峰诸多涉及社会问题的艺术作品之一。他曾卧底调查拐卖儿童问题。这是中国的一个大问题。他还做过一个有关如何购买假身份证和枪支的计划。

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

邓玉峰指出，缺乏数据隐私也是一个全球性问题。

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.

在志愿者的帮助下，邓玉峰向信息在此次展览中展出的人发了大约10000条短信，邀请他们观展。

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

其中一个人并不觉得好笑。据邓玉峰说，此人回复他：“有病吧。”