To assist companies and organisations in becoming compliant, here I'll provide a handy and simplified checklist.

PIPL compliance checklist

Companies and organisations that have business operations in China, whether incorporated in China or elsewhere, will need to make sure they are compliant. We have outlined and simplified these key questions to get companies started as soon as they can.

1. Will you need a designated representative or entity within Chinese borders?

China‘s PIPL extends its territorial scope to the processing of personal information conducted outside of China. The purpose of this processing must be:

(i) To provide products or services to individuals in China, or

(ii) To analyse or assess the behavior of individuals in China, or

(iii) For other purposes to be specified by laws and regulations

If you are an offshore organisation processing the personal data of Chinese residents to provide services or products, or for analysing and assessing their behavior, you must establish a dedicated office or appoint a designated representative in China for personal information protection purposes, and file the information of the entity or the representative with the relevant government authorities.

2. Are you collecting and using personal information on a lawful basis?

The processing activities that take place in your organisation must have a clear and reasonable purpose. Legitimate interest is not a recognised lawful basis under the PIPL.

3. Are you giving individuals the option to withdraw consent?

Individuals must have a convenient way to withdraw their consent. You cannot refuse someone's right to withdraw their consent at any point.

4. Does your company or organisation have a privacy notice?

An explicit privacy notice must be provided to individuals. The privacy notice must be clear, concise, and in easily understandable language. Your privacy notice needs to include the following:

• Name of the data controller
• Contact method of the data controller
• Purpose of the processing of personal information
• The methods and procedures for individuals to exercise the rights provided in the PIPL

If your organisation notifies individuals using the method of formulating personal information processing rules then you should make these processing rules public. The rules should be easy to read and store.

5. Do you have automated mechanisms to fulfil data subjects' rights?

Processes for individuals to exercise their rights should be convenient to accept and process. Having an automated data subject request mechanism is probably the easiest way to execute this.

6. Do you have a security breach response in place?

If a security breach occurs, organisations need to have an immediate remediation reaction. You will need to notify the relevant agencies and affected individuals. A clear security breach response plan needs to be in place, along with the tools required to ensure compliance with breach notifications.

7. Does your organisation need to conduct a Personal Information Impact Assessment (PIIA)?

A Personal Information Impact Assessment (PIIA) would need to be rendered if you are processing sensitive personal information, or using personal information to produce automated decision-making. It will also need to be conducted if you are entrusting personal information processing or providing personal information to other data controllers.

8. Have you implemented data classifications and management mechanisms?

Internal management structures and data classification will need to be formulated and implemented. This requirement aligns with new data classifications under China's Personal Information Protection Law.

9. Have you fulfilled your cross-border data transfer obligations?

If you engage in cross-border data transfers with China, you will need to comply with strict requirements and meet one of these four mechanisms for cross-border transfers.

10. Have you concluded data processing agreements with third-party's processors?

If you are using third parties for your processing activities, you must ensure that you conclude an agreement with them for processing. The agreement needs to include the following:

• The time limit
• The processing method
• Categories of personal information
• Protection measures
• The rights and duties of both sides
• Supervise the processing activities of the third parties.

Benefits of becoming PIPL compliant

Once you have complied with the laws and regulations surrounding China‘s PIPL, remaining compliant is necessary and beneficial. The long-term benefits are far-reaching and will continue to be seen as we embrace these new laws and regulations concerning data privacy. That being said, the following can already be outlined:

Clarity on data collected

Gaining clarification will give organisations a better understanding of how their data processes work will show how that data is utilised. For example, marketing and sales teams can gain insight into the various demographics they can market products and services to. The aim is to identify key target audiences for improved accuracy for marketing initiatives.

Better brand reputation

Establishing trust is key for any modern business, now more than ever before. By sticking to privacy policies, organisations can improve their brand reputation, securing more business relationships built upon ethical-minded optics and trust.

Simplified business automation processes

As in many business practices that evolve, process improvements begin to reveal themselves. Investigating how your company manages customer and client data storage could ultimately lead to streamlining processes and reveal security vulnerabilities, which can then be addressed and corrected.

Increased credibility

Organisations that utilise the best data management principles will gain credibility and infallible trust from their customers. Becoming PIPL compliant and displaying your privacy policy will signify to clients that your company or organisation has achieved a high level of data protection, a characteristic that business partners, clients, and all customers can appreciate.

An even data privacy playing field

Organisations that already had stringent data privacy measures in place faced unfair competition from companies and organisations that paid no heed to personal privacy. This new ethical environment protects customers and clients without placing them vulnerable under enormous pressure to gain a competitive advantage.

Benefits of utilising privacy governance technology

Privacy governance technology provides functionalities that enable your organisation to create and maintain data registers, visualise the flow of data across the business, document transfer mechanisms and automatically generate processing records and other compliance reporting.

How does it do this?

• It allows an organisation to embed rule logic or skip logic into a questionnaire to manage risk in a more organised way
• Reduces the complexity of managing different workflows of varying consent collection points
• Enables an organisation to prioritise vendor inventory with auto-inherent risk and save time with automated vendor onboarding workflows
• Provides a more transparent and tracked workflow of handling data subject requests than a manual approach
• AI technologies can be used to perform auto compliance regulation checking on contract clauses by monitoring engines embedded with data privacy rules
• AI performs full scans on contracts to auto-compare privacy clauses and analyse the level of compliance of the contract

Take action now

Although the process will take some getting used to, organisations need to take the necessary steps to become PIPL compliant. This involves setting up consent mechanisms for personal information processing, reviewing third-party data processing agreements, and formulating a set of comprehensive internal data compliance policies.

These stringent regulations, similar to that of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), were established to protect citizens' personally identifiable information by regulating data transfer outside China. The ordinary person has now become empowered to control their digital paper trails.

Once a company has an efficient and streamlined data protection process in place, the easier it will be to sustain these practices in the long term. Making compliance easier for all individuals in your organisation will ensure that data protection is recognised as a part of everyday ethical business activity, rather than an overhead required to avoid hefty fines.

If an organisation operates outside of China, or if personal information is exported outside of China, it is necessary to assess the extra-territorial application of the PIPL. Reviewing this application will assist in implementing appropriate cross-border data transfer mechanisms.

The post What Organisations Need to Do to Become PIPL Compliant appeared first on Datafloq.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was passed by the European Union and has been in effect since 25 May 2018. The GDPR is the most comprehensive privacy and security law in the world. But how does this compare to the PIPL and the privacy laws adopted by the US for privacy protection?

It is important to note and compare how these laws differ and draw parallels. A comparison will allow us to assess how we interact and do business with these countries. In this article, I will outline these laws and navigate how this will affect day-to-day dealings with these countries.

The United States lacks one law that envelops the privacy of all types of data. Instead, it has a combination of various elements that go by acronyms like HIPAA, FCRA, FERPA, GLBA, ECPA, COPPA, and VPPA. The data collected by the vast majority of products people use every day isn't regulated. Each different state's draft data privacy law looks different some with prior consent requirements akin to the EU's GDPR. Some have larger scopes and others have exemptions by sectors.

The necessity for data protection laws

In the modern global economy, data is one of the most valuable resources to businesses. Companies use data to understand customers and personalise experiences to build deeper relationships which in turn increase profits. While the use of data is optimised when it freely flows across borders, many countries have been formulating privacy measures making the transfer of data across borders more complicated, expensive, and time-consuming. Some activities, at a broader level, may even become illegal.

Data protection legislation prevents data from being misused or traded/sold/leaked to third parties that may use it for purposes different to the consent given by the customers when it was collected. The most common data elements that businesses collect may include your name, address, emails, contact telephone numbers, and bank and credit card details. Protecting this information is both an ethical and more importantly a legal requirement in most countries and the businesses must take considerable measures to protect the data they collect.

Data protection laws contain a set of principles that organisations, governments, and businesses have to adhere to in order to ensure people's data is accurate, safe, secure, and lawful.

These principles ensure data is:

• Only used in specific processes
• Not stored for longer than necessary
• Used only in relevant ways
• Kept safe and secure
• Used only within the confines of the law
• Not transferred out of the legal jurisdiction it was collected in without consent
• Stored following data protection rights

Timeline of information security laws enhancement in China

Since the enactment of the Cybersecurity Law (the CSL) in June 2017, Chinese Regulators have launched a series of enforcement actions involving a cybersecurity review against some internet companies. The enforcement actions brought data security into the spotlight.

In September 2021, the Chinese government stepped up its enforcement efforts on data security governance by introducing the Data Security Law (DSL) to provide additional data protection on top of cyberspace governance.

The Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) has mirrored certain provisions of the GDPR and jointly built up a strict regulatory regime for privacy protection, data security, and network security in China. The GDPR acted as a benchmark for international judicial practice.

Key similarities and differences between PIPL and GDPR

While the PIPL employed the GDPR as a benchmark for the data privacy framework, there is no single principal data protection legislation in the United States. A jumble of hundreds of laws enacted on both the federal and state levels serves to protect the personal data of United States residents.

Here is a comparison of the general ways in which these data laws differ and the similarities between them:

Cross-border Data Transfer:

The PIPL has some elements in common with the GDPR regarding the cross-border transfer of personal information. However, it also has some additional requirements. The GDPR has an adequate level of protection ensured. The appropriate safeguards are implemented in the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC), Binding Corporate Rules, etc. PIPL goes beyond this with implementing data localisation. In essence, this means that the PIPL requires a controller of large-scale personal data or a critical information operator to store personal data within China. Cross-border transfers above a certain threshold are subject to a security assessment by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA):

Regarding GDPR, a DPIA is required when there is a high-risk nature of the processing. PIPL requires DPIA to be performed whenever there is a transfer of data overseas and when using third-party processors. In the United States, the DPIA is a compliance requirement.

Rights of Individuals:

With regards to the GDPR, people have the right to access, correct, erase, and object to processing, subject to any automated decisions concerning data provided. The PIPL provides the same rights but includes additional rights, including requesting handlers to explain their handling rules. The rights can be exercised beyond death by close relatives of the deceased.

Sensitive Personal Information:

The GDPR and PIPL both protect biometric data, religious information, and health-related data. The GDPR also protects trade union membership details, generic data, and sexual orientation. The PIPL instead protects personal financial accounts, personal information of minors under the age of 14, and so on.

Data Breach Notification:

The GDPR controller will, in the case of a personal data breach, notify the personal data breach to the supervisory authority competent in accordance with Article 55 not later than 72 hours after having become aware of it. The PIPL imposes immediate mandatory reporting of data breaches to the relevant authority on a personal information handler.

Legal Liabilities:

The GDPR punishes non-compliance with a fine of up to ” 20 million or up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year. The PIPL punishes non-compliance with fines of up to RMB 50 million (approximately ” 6 316 830 or up to 5% of the prior year's revenue).

Data protection in the United States

Because there is no particular law in the United States, it is imperative to inspect their current laws separately by comparing them to data protection laws that China and the European Union have imposed on their territory.

Data privacy is not highly legislated or regulated in the U.S. The access to private data contained in, for example, third-party credit reports may be sought when seeking employment or medical care. Although some regulations exist, there is no all-encompassing law regulating the acquisition, storage, or use of personal data.

Whoever obtains the data is deemed to own the right to store and use it, even if the data was collected without permission. Exemptions on this content are regulated by laws and rules such as the Federal Communications Act's provisions, and implementing rules from the Federal Communications Commission.

Some examples of data privacy laws in the United States are:

• Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa) this governs the collection of information about minors (children 13 years and younger).
• Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act this governs the collection of health information.
• Fair Credit Reporting Act this act regulates the collection and use of credit information.
• Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) governs personal information collected by banks and financial institutions.

According to Osano, a corporate privacy supplier in the U.S. The U.S. has hundreds of sectoral data privacy and data security laws among its states. The state attorney generals oversee data privacy laws governing the collection, storage, safeguarding, disposal, and use of personal data collected from their residents, especially regarding data breach notifications and the security of Social Security numbers. Some apply only to governmental entities, some apply only to private entities, and some apply to both.

Outcomes of the Comparison: DPR, PIPL, and US Data Privacy Laws

When comparing GDPR and PIPL, one can draw a few parallels to the privacy laws in place. The biggest similarity is that it is a law within itself. The US, although having some similarities with both, doesn't have one defining law to compare to.

The GDPR and PIPL have all-encompassing laws making it easier to govern and having clearly defined bodies in place to monitor any breaches of these data rules.

The post Comparison Between Global Data Security Laws – China PIPL, EU GDPR, And US Data Laws appeared first on Datafloq.

This cybersecurity structure will regulate data protection and security in China indefinitely. All companies need to have been China data security law compliant by September 2021.

Businesses that have operations in China involving data collection and processing need to follow the rules set out by the PIPL, if not, they will face contraventions for non-compliance.

Who is Subject to PIPL?

Companies in all industries are affected by PIPL. Entities affected include Chinese domestic companies and Chinese subsidiaries set up by multinational companies. Also affected are foreign companies that do business in China, even those without physical business presence there. Any business whose activities include selling products or services to the Chinese market and collecting data and PII within China are subject to the law. It includes special reference to businesses that assess and analyze the behaviours of individuals in China.

Requirements of Data Security Law for Businesses

All companies with data processing activities are subject to DSL (Data Law Security). The DSL also provides for extra-territorial conditions if data processing activities conducted outside China harm the national security and public interest of Chinese citizens or entities. If information is regarded as critical to national security (Critical Information Infrastructure/CII) then Critical Information Infrastructure Operators (CIIO's) must store that data locally in China.

All businesses that act as data processors need to establish and optimize a data security management system, adopting lawful and justified methods in collecting and using personal data. This includes consent management, data minimisation, access restriction, logging, auditing, encryption and data masking. Businesses operating in China need to arrange data security training for all staff who may come into contact with the data asset.

China operates a Multi-level Protection Scheme which is a certification grading an organisation by two considerations: impacted object and impacted level. Impacted objects refer to who or what will be impacted by a cybersecurity incident. These include Chinese citizens, individuals, organisations, social interest, public order, or national security. Impacted level refers to whether a cybersecurity incident will cause minor, major, or critical levels of impact on the objects by national security and social stability. Businesses that do not affect national security or public interests are usually classified as Level 1, while businesses that may affect social order and public interest are classified as Level 2 or above. Systems or applications with higher degrees of impact are more likely to be classified as Level 3 or even Level 4. Level 5 is reserved for state-owned military systems.

Companies operating in China also need to evaluate their exposure by association and prepare for these certification processes. If a network is determined to be Level 2 or above, the network operator must engage a qualified expert to carry out additional security reviews. Qualified experts are usually a third-party agency, but they can also be certified security professionals within the organisation.

Significant Impacts on Personal Information Handlers

Cross-border transfers may require a government security assessment or certification by a professional institution if the data transferred is above a certain size in terms of the number of customer records or the raw data volumes.

The law has requirements for the following disclosures to be made: The name and information of the overseas recipient, their purpose, and method of the data transfer, the type of personal information being processed, and the process by which an individual may consent and exercise their privacy rights.

Impact assessments will be required for businesses that wish to collect sensitive personal information and any business that wishes to use this information for automated decision-making. The processing purposes and methods will need to be assessed to ensure they are legitimate, justified, and necessary. How this impacts an individual's right will need to be clarified, as well as the resulting security risk.

When collecting a subject's financial status, consumption habits, and sensitivity to pricing, the data legislation may require a business to explain the data processing and justify any refused decisions based solely on the automated decision. This kind of assessment will ensure transparency, fairness, and impartiality when using data to make an automated decision.

New Additional Requirements on Sensitive PI

The PIPL includes an extended scope which defines that biometric characteristics, religious beliefs, medical records, financial accounts, and individual location, as well as the personal information of minors under the age of 14 are all considered sensitive personal information, and as such, have stricter processing requirements. This includes obtaining specific additional consent a person must consent to the capture of each of these and then separately consent to how they are processed.

PIPL requires additional security measures to secure sensitive personal information. These new measures may include strong encryption, separate storage facilities, no storage of biometric information such as facial images. PIPL will only allow facial recognition technologies in public areas for security purposes, with easily identified notices and independent consent of data subjects. Use of facial recognition technology must always obtain the subject's specific, independent and explicit consent.

Impact on Businesses for Non-Compliance

If the collection of personal information is taking place, a business will be required to appoint a Personal Information protection officer. The officers appointed are similar in capacity to that of a DPO (Data Protection Officer) to supervise data processing and oversee the protection measures to be carried out.

Foreign companies without a business presence in China will need to set up an agency or appoint a representative in China to deal with data protection matters if the data processing outside of China is subject to the PIPL. Companies not preparing for these processes will face elevated compliance risks. These risks include audits and police-led inspections.

After audits and investigations have been completed, businesses that have been found to contravene the data security law can be subject to various penalties. This includes revoking of business licenses, suspension of business activities, potential criminal repercussions, and fines of up to 5% of annual business revenue.

Future Business Impact

As this law is in the early stage of implementation it may be too soon to ascertain how far-reaching the impact will be regarding data security around the globe.

The data security law will have the biggest impact on multination companies outside of China. China's localised technology companies will most likely be the least affected, as the DSL primarily focuses on data leaving the country. The data security law will create a significant compliance process for companies who don't want suspension face huge penalties.

The best way to navigate the future of business dealings in and around China is to establish a best practice that correlates with the PIPL and DSL and matches the processes set out within the legislation. Businesses impacted will need to revisit their existing data management procedures, identify specialists to support them with assessing exposure, impacts and the changes required to remain compliant,

Security legislation is a complex and every evolving domain, it is critical to revisit this often difficult to navigate and continually evolving landscape.

The post PIPL: The Rules and Impacts for Businesses appeared first on Datafloq.

Ok, try this.

What did the whale shout to buyers? Mine!

There's no pleasing some people.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Tech Journal.”My name is Mark van Rijmenam, and I am The Digital Speaker.”From Brain-Computer Interfaces and Monkeys playing pong, through to algorithmic management and NFTs, I aim to examine innovations and breakthroughs through my digital lens, taking a closer look at what they are and what they mean for our businesses and our personal lives.

In today's video, I want to take a look at what's new in the cryptocurrency world, exploring some of the latest news and trying to get a clearer vision of what the future holds.' ”And on that note, it‘s time to start today's digital download.

You can either view the episode above or view it on Vimeo, YouTube or listen to it on Anchor.fm, Soundcloud or Spotify.

Bitcoin

As Crypto is the topic, it would be rude to not mention the king of cryptos, no, not old Musky boy, I mean bitcoin itself.

Bitcoin has been on everyone's lips since its founding over a decade ago, with peaks and troughs taking hodlers – yes, hodlers, not holders, look it up – on a rollercoaster of emotions, the currency has always been littered with uncertainty, and today isn't any different.

Recently, big bitcoin players have been dropping like flies, with John McAfee, a famous bitcoin whale and antivirus king, dying in prison, and Mircea Popescu, a bitcoin whale whose holdings are thought to be in the billions, drowning in Costa Rica.News of this whale drowning has brought more uncertainty to the coin.

As Mircea's refusal to sell billions in bitcoin is a key factor in the price, should whoever inherit the fortune decide to sell, bitcoin may find its price crashing to the depths of 2018, when the price dropped from fifteen thousand to three thousand.

The price of this digital currency, as with all currencies, follows the simple rules of supply and demand.”Meaning, if his family decides to sell and millions of bitcoins suddenly flood the market, the price would be in trouble.

Having said that, the rumour mill is hard at work and suggests the family doesn't have access to the funds.”If this is the case, Mircea's bitcoin fortune would be lost forever, wiping his capital from the market causing prices to increase due to a drop in supply.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. While some are unsure of the future, others speak with steady voices. Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the influential Mexican billionaire and owner of Banco Azteca, speaks confidently about Bitcoin's future, dismissing others like the more sustainable and digitally advanced Ethereum and the memecoin Dogecoin.

He already publicly bought bitcoin last year, using ten per cent of his liquid investment portfolio to acquire what was probably several bitcoins -he is a billionaire after all. He also backed Monero and Zcash, two other, privacy-focused, coins.”If plans go his way, his bank, Banco Azteca, will become the first in Mexico to accept bitcoin.

These grand gestures are the cornerstone to digital currencies, as seen by Musk‘s own grand gestures both raising and lowering Bitcoin's price over the space of only a few months.”These types of confidence-boosting events are pretty common, with Dogecoin having a metaverse party, where one million Dogecoins and NFTs were given out to all who turned up to the online event.

Unfortunately, not all big events can be positive, especially when it comes to the digital sphere.

Cybercriminals Patrolling the Metaverse

Cybercriminals have been around since the dawn of digitisation, with hackers and scammers constantly patrolling the metaverse on the prowl for their next victim.

Recently, two South African brothers who ran their own crypto trading platform, made off with just over $3.4 billion worth of Bitcoin.”The brothers initially told clients they'd been hacked and not to contact the authorities before vanishing into thin air. With so much potential to gain a huge amount of untraceable capital, it's no wonder some can't resist the temptation.

It's not just stealing existing crypto where cybercriminals focus though.

Recently, an anti-virus firm, Avast, came out and announced they'd discovered a new type of cyberattack focused on crypto mining.”Cybercriminals had been installing a new crypto-mining malware, Crackonosh, into mainstream games.”This malware uses the victims processing power to mine crypto whenever the game is running.”The cybercriminals have gotten away with two million dollars worth of Monero, and are still no closer to being caught.”Their system is now known which puts a lifespan on this version, but if this is just our first peek into this type of malware, it begs the question of how prevalent this already is.”Potentially many more programs already have this secret malware hidden inside them, silently mining Monero. Cybercriminals aren't the only ones giving crypto a bad name though.

Elon Musk's Bitcoin Flipping

In a move that many described as market manipulation, while others only as a simple flip, Musk opened Tesla up to accepting Bitcoin in exchange for cars, pumping the price.”Then, only a few weeks later, flipped on his decision and rejected the coin claiming it's too environmentally damaging to be associated with Tesla, sending the price falling. More recently, this time alongside Amazon, he told the world that he might start accepting bitcoin after all.Musk cited bitcoin mining as being especially bad for the environment. With bitcoin mining warehouses kept on twenty-four hours a day, Cambridge researchers claim it's equal to one hundred and twenty-one terawatt-hours a year, which works out to more than the entire country of Argentina.

And that's just bitcoin. With all the crypto mining going on, we've potentially sleepwalked into a new environmentally damaging industry.

Although progress is being made. We're watching new consensus mechanisms being developed, one being the proof of stake method wherein validators will have to put up their own crypto as collateral.”Basically, new blocks aren't determined by processing power, but instead the size of the validators holdings.”The main argument in favour of this is that it significantly lowers the energy consumption of mining some crypto.

While it's perfectly acceptable and very human to change one's mind as new evidence comes in, the general public turned against Musk, and saw a vast swathe of retail traders trying to short Tesla, in an attempt to crash the stock.”The attempt was pretty short-lived though as Tesla stock has already recovered from the small low of $644 on July the seventh.

Not everyone took Tesla's announcement badly though. NVIDIA, a US technology company, announced they'll make efforts to produce GPUs with less hash, making them harder to use for crypto mining.NVIDIA chips have notoriously become key assets in Crypto mining, as gamers and digital enthusiasts alike find themselves unable to get hold of any new NVIDIA chips thanks to crypto miners' bulk buying.”While you'd expect a move like this to alienate the company, causing their products to lower in demand and therefore in value, the move actually had the opposite effect, proving their dedication to ethical digital innovation and to their target audience.

With all these ups and downs in the digital finance world, and more with Dogecoin and the general concept of memecoins becoming widely accepted, government bodies are looking to get in fast with regulations, shutting down the decentralised and runaway new digital industry as much as they can.

Regulators Banning Crypto

Recently, we saw the leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, banned by the UK's and Japanese's financial regulators.”The move, if anything, highlighted more the ineffectiveness of country-specific regulations, as traders within the UK and Japan continued trading.The bans only affected Binance's in-country offices, and they continued operations from international servers.

However, traders can't withdraw any funds to bank accounts within the affected countries.”The companies were accused by the financial regulators of operating without licenses and mis-selling cryptocurrency investments.”It seems like we're witnessing countries trying to catch up with the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency.

Of course, it's not just the UK and Japan getting on the anti-crypto bandwagon. China is and has been at the forefront of state-sanctioned crypto regulations for some time now.”On the 18th of June, Chinese Authorities ordered all bitcoin mining operations in the Sichuan province to cease operations.'China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, summoned various major banks and payment companies, directing them to come down harder on all cryptocurrencies.”The institutions were told they cannot provide any products relating to crypto, from trading through to clearing transactions.”With this order resulting in the closure of 26 mines, the bitcoin price crashed once more, reaching new recent lows of twenty-eight thousand US Dollars.

Decentralised Finance

All this government interest in crypto may spell disaster for earlier, less developed currencies like bitcoin, but be in favour of more advanced and adaptive blockchain networks, and their respective currencies, such as Ethereum, Cardano or Polkadot.

Whoever wins the digital currency race, decentralised finance, these days simply known as DeFi, is becoming ever more stable.

Most decentralised currencies don't use bitcoin's blockchain, which is inflexible and rigid, but instead, use Ethereum which easily reached the mantle of the world's second-biggest cryptocurrency thanks to its blockchain's programmable nature.”A major perk of this programmable nature is the ability to create smart contracts, sometimes referred to as transaction protocols.”Basically, the paying party, or the party handing over their Ether, can create a smart contract and put it there, programming the contract to only release the Ether once the control has been fulfilled.

The smart contract acts as a third party, further removing the need for corruptible human elements from the transaction equation, taking the very Defi dream, to its logical conclusion.”But it's not over there, no. Ethereum is making huge strides in the crypto world and, come 2022, Ethereum 2.0 will be launching.Ethereum 2.0 wants to open itself up to a wider market and trade at much higher volumes, and so is setting out to achieve two things.

First, raising the blockchains minimum transactions to one hundred thousand per second. The creators hope that'll create a more streamlined blockchain making network clogs a thing of the fast.”And second, drastically reduce the energy required to mine the currency.

As I mentioned before, the environmental effects of crypto mining are on everyone's lips right now and so it's no wonder Ethereum wants to address that if it's serious about its future.”Right now, Ether, like other cryptos, validate transitions by a proof-of-work protocol, generally referred to as mining, which uses the miner's computer processing power to solve complex puzzles.Ethereum 2.0, on the other hand, aims to change this to proof-of-stake, which looks to verify blockchain transactions by getting miners' to put up their existing coins as a stake.”With no mining rewards or transaction fees, once Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0 merge, Proof-of-work mining will become obsolete.”So, while Bitcoin currently sits as King of Crypto, if I were a betting digital twin, I'd wage Ethereum 2.0 will overtake bitcoin and the bitcoin blockchain the next decade.”Whether that's due to Ethereum's growth, a bitcoin crash, or a little of both, I can't say, but I already said in 2017 that Bitcoin will become the MySpace of the crypto world; the first to market but the last to evolve.

Still, regardless of what happens with digital finance, government regulators will increasingly involve themselves as civil servants become increasingly digitally literate.

Anti-Trust Cases

Evidence of this can be seen with the rising regulatory interest in digital giants, such as the recent string of anti-trust breaches made by Google.”In the EU, Google has been accused of monopolising market data by the European Commission.”They're accused of keeping data to themselves and their customers, and is the fourth time charges are being brought against them by the European Commission.”The other three anti-trust charges equalled a totalled of 8.2 billion euros or 9.7 billion dollars in fines.

They've also been hit by France specifically. The French Competition Agency charged Google with a historic five hundred million euro single fine after failing to negotiate fairly with news publishers. Google was reported to have forced deals and was unwilling to negotiate profit sharing. Google was given two months from this fine to negotiate payments for the protected news content otherwise face more fines, next time though being 900.000 euros, or one million dollars, every day they don't implement it.

Over in the US, Google isn't doing so much better. They're being taken to court over mismanagement of their app store, and last year over a secret deal with Apple to make Google the default search engine on Apple products.”What was a landmark case last year, is now becoming a regular occurrence.”If this continues, we may begin to see more anti-trust cases brought against the other digital giants, as they've all gotten so large, they run the risk of becoming monopolies.

Facebook, Amazon, and Google all have firm holds over their respective markets, and while the other giants put up with higher levels of competition, none can compare to the goliath-hold these companies have over the free market.”Still, it's not all doom and gloom as financial institutions look to catch up with the digital tide.

Digital Central Bank Currencies

As centralised finances become ever more outdated, governments will need to either embrace the change or be left at the mercy of the free market.”China's DCRP is a great example of a country embracing digitalised finances and has already seen $5.3 billion circulated around twenty million individuals via seventy million transactions.”Talking about the DCRP, China's answer to digital currency, the European Central Bank announced just this July, that they're now looking to create a digital Euro.

Much like China, the European Central Bank has been keeping a close eye on the rise of cryptocurrency and have had the foresight to create a digital version of their cash, in this case, the Euro, before it's too late.”Unlike China's foresight though, it took COVID to act as the catalyst for the shift, as the pandemic sparked an increasing trend to go cashless and created a world where even beggars have a QR code.

The ECB have announced that they plan to take two years to research then three to develop the digital Euro, meaning right now we are looking at a 2026 arrival.”As this goes ahead, we get an image of the future where the Euro and the Chinese Yuan are the first centralised digital currencies, potentially propelling both currencies to positions more valuable than the dollar.

Final Thoughts

What do you think the digital future of finance looks like?”Do you think we're moving towards decentralisation, or will this have an adverse effect and simply firm up the state's grip?”Let me know what you think in the comments.

And on that digitalised note, I have been your digital host, Mark van Rijmenam, The Digital Speaker, and this has been The Tech Journal.”If digital innovation gets your imagination firing, be the first to hear about the latest digital breakthroughs.”Press the subscribe button now.

See you next time for your information download.”Stay digital.

The post EP17 – Crypto, Regulators and Digital Central Bank Currencies appeared first on Datafloq.

Through this miracle of digital evolution, I am going to discuss the latest digital advancements from the comfort of inside the digital world.

From blockchain and crypto through to quantum computing and AI, I aim to keep you in the forever turning digital loop, as well as putting some thought into how these digital innovations look to change our lives.

Today I am covering at Samsung's plans for 6G and what this level of internet could enable us to do. I will go where no internet has gone before, and take a look at Space internet, what it is, who's doing it, and what it could mean for humanity. Then I'll finish the show by tackling digital currency, specifically China‘s digital Renminbi and how it's on track to topple the dollar.

Put your feet up, get comfortable, and let us start speaking digital.

You can either view the episode above, or you can view it on Vimeo, YouTube or listen to it on Anchor.fm, Soundcloud or Spotify. Below is the transcript of the video if you prefer to read the episode.

Upgrade the Upgrade

While we have only just begun seeing the rollout of 5G, Samsung has already started work on 6G. In their recently published 6G whitepaper, Samsung's head researcher, Dr Sebastian Seung, stated that they expect 6G to be ready by 2028, followed by a mass rollout in 2030.

To give some perspective; 5G achieves twenty gigabytes per second at peak performance, with a user experience averaging around 0.1 to 0.2 gigs per second. But 6G, 6G is a whole different ball-game.

By the end of the decade, we can look forward to 6G providing us with a peak data performance rate of 1,000 gigabytes per second. That is a huge one terabyte per second peak data rate.

Translating that into user-end terms, we can expect to experience a minimum rate of about one gig per second. Waiting for downloads will become a thing of the past.

What is more, Samsung published a list of exciting digital tech that 6G makes possible. A couple of which being holograms and digital replicas.

Holograms

First, holograms, or rather, high-fidelity mobile holograms, are on track and, due to their data demands, will be released at the same time as 6G. The ability to replicate the digital world in three dimensions is already big business, with the hologram market expected to be valued at seven point six billion dollars by 2023.

With holograms covering the digital world moving to our three dimensions, ‘digital replicas' will do the opposite. Taking our world and re-creating it, down to the most microscopic detail, in the digital realm.

With the help of advanced sensors, AI, and communication tech, these replicas will mimic physical objects, including people, devices, objects, systems, and even places, in a digital space.

This means that we will be able to create ‘digital twins'. An accurate digital version of ourselves moving around in a precise copy of reality. Giving users the ability to explore real-world and fictional locations from the safety of the digital world.

Try and imagine using a digital clone similar to mine, and exploring a perfect digital version of New York, Paris, or the Moon, from the comfort of your own home.

Digital Twins

Taking this further, users could even move around the real-world version of the space by controlling a robot and using the area's digital twin as a map. So, imagine being in the digital clone of Paris, while controlling a drone, that is flying round the real-world Paris.

Unfortunately, Samsung foresees performance issues as most hardware available to the public would not be able to cope. Although, they are already working on a work-around as they look to offload the majority of the computing to dedicated servers, streaming the content to the user's local device.

Now, from terrestrial internet to something almost out of this world, Low-earth orbit internet satellites.

ET Skypes Home

SpaceX‘s “Starlink” & Amazon‘s “Project Kuiper” battle to be the first to dominate the space internet industry. Starlink aims to launch 12,000 satellites into low earth orbit by 2027, increasing that number to 42,000 in the years following. These will then form a global web, beaming high-speed internet to every corner of the world.

So far, SpaceX has only launched 500 but aims to have North America up and running by 2020, Europe turned-on by February 2021, and the rest of the world by 2022, bringing forward their 2019 schedule by two years.

Their schedule has moved forward so much that they are already beta testing with live users. Beta invites have been sent out to some of the 700,000 individuals who expressed their interest earlier in the year, with more invites going out all the time.

These beta testers have already reported speeds of more than 160 megabits per second, however, with up-front costs of $600 to join, broken down into just under $500 for a tripod and router, then $99 for a monthly subscription, the privilege to test this groundbreaking tech is not particularly cheap.

Musk has spoken of aims to dramatically reduce these costs once the service is mainstream. Having said all that, Bezos is not out of the race just yet.

Amazon's own version, Project Kuiper , recently got permission from the American FCC to launch 3,236 satellites into low-earth orbit, heating up the competition.

The FCC mentioned they specifically granted permission to Amazon to launch these satellites to increase the availability of high-speed broadband services to customers, government and businesses . Which given recent pandemic related events, this aim is all the more vital.

If we also consider that only 59% of the world have access to the internet anyway, that still leaves 41% of the human population without access to the education, business, and personal opportunities the internet provides.

Putting all this in real-world terms, once space internet becomes mainstream and affordable, every human with a device will have access to the internet no matter their geographical location. You will be able to use Facebook from the North Pole, buy shares from the middle of the Sahara, or order from Amazon while in the, well, Amazon.

The coming decade will begin with space internet and end with 6G. We, as private citizens and business owners, can look forward to a vast increase in internet capabilities, empowering us to achieve and create so much more than at any point in human history.

Talking about business, let us move to our final segment, digital currencies.

The Digital Currency Race

China‘s new digital currency, the ‘DCEP' or Digital Currency Electronic Payment, is taking off and, if the US does not do anything, is set to topple the dollar.

Despite concerns over widespread adoption of a digital yuan in emerging markets and international trade, China is going full steam ahead in an attempt to seize power away from the dollar and Libra, as they internationalise the Yuan, reducing dependence on the dollar.

Back in April, they already embarked on testing, inviting four major state-owned banks, the top three telecoms companies, and Huawei to the table. Huawei went so far as to partner with the People's Bank of China and entered a cloud deal with the Digital Currency Research Institute, a significant step in developing their digital cash.

Since then, China‘s central bank has issued ten million yuan, roughly one point five million dollars or one point one million pounds, to roughly 50,000 people in the Shenzhen area via a national lottery. The lucky winners can spend their digital cash in over 3,000 shops

A couple of DCEP features that make it better than cryptocurrencies are the ability to exchange offline and not require a third party. The DCEP lets users exchange cash to their heart's content, utilizing their phones NFCs, Near-field-communication, to transfer cash quickly and easily.

The currency would be centralized too, giving the power to create and destroy money directly to the People's Bank of China, also enabling them to control inflation, ensuring the DCEP will always be one for one with the Yuan. However, much like crypto, the DCEP uses private and public keys and aims to break apart the traditional banking systems.

US Regulators

Regulators over in the US are also unwittingly assisting China.

Both Sharon Bowen, a former CFTC commissioner who currently sits on the board of directors for New York Stock Exchange-owner Intercontinental Exchange, and Sheila Warren, head of blockchain at the World Economic Forum, have both expressed deep concerns over America's lagging efforts.

On June 30th, the US Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on the future of the digital dollar. American regulators expressed deep concerns over the long-term threat to the traditional financial systems a digital dollar and Libra holds. Not particularly the can-do' attitude needed to win this currency race.

Who knows what the future will hold, but one thing that can be foreseen is that digital currency is well on its way, and when it gets here, the way we do business will be forever fundamentally changed.

From 6G improving what we can do with the internet, Spacelink giving the entire world internet access, and digital currencies becoming a reality, the digital frontier is coming to life as more and more of the real world is emigrating to the digital one.

As society becomes more and more reliant on the internet, with the digital frontier becoming the focal point, it is safe to say that, much like changes seen in the automobile from 1920 to 2020, over the next century the internet will revolutionize and change the world entirely.

Sometimes it may feel like as a society we have stalled, but if history has taught us anything, it is that if we keep our eyes looking forward and our minds set on innovation, we can and will keep moving.

That is all we have time for today. I have been your host, Mark van Rijmenam, The Digital Speaker, and you have been watching the Tech Journal. For other episodes, or the audio version, please follow the below links:

• Soundcloud
• Anchor.fm
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Instagram

The post The Digital Speaker Series: Tech Journal – Episode 02 appeared first on Datafloq.

It makes him the first major world leader to issue such a strong endorsement of the digital ledger technology which, in the simplest of terms, is a time-stamped series of data records managed by a number of computers and not owned by any single entity. It allows individuals who don't know and trust each other to transfer value to one another, and has been hailed an absolute game-changer. But until now, blockchain has mostly been ignored or looked at with distrust by governments worldwide.

Capable of enabling faster, cheaper and more transparent financial transactions than those we have today, such as SWIFT, blockchain has been celebrated mostly for its potential in the finance sector. Most notably, blockchain is the technology that enables the existence of cryptocurrency – decentralized, AES-encrypted, peer-to-peer digital money that exists outside the realm of banks, and the supposed answer to all our currency issues.

But the great unknowns of blockchain have also led it to be shunned by the Chinese government, until now. Or until 2017, when China decided it wanted to dominate the global blockchain race. But shortly after it changed its mind. It is actually quite comical, the back-and-forths we have seen from China with respect to its relationship with blockchain: a relationship which is complicated to say the least.

First of all, China is one of the biggest miners of digital currency and yet has actively made crypto illegal. In 2017, it banned a fundraising exercise known as an initial coin offering and forced local trading platforms to shut down. At the same time, the country's largest bank and regulator of national finance – the People's Bank of China – has been steadily developing its own digital currency for around five years. China also cracked down severely on any businesses involved in cryptocurrency operations earlier this year, even after Jinping publicly admitted that he thought the country needed to open itself to the blockchain market, which saw Bitocin sink to its lowest level, falling $3,000 in one month.

The move also saw a number of crypto CEOs disappear overnight, taking with them the keys to potentially millions of dollars worth of digital assets. It's not the first time crypto users have lost out: in December 2018 users lost an estimated $250 million after one platform owner suddenly died, taking with him the access code to his cold wallet and thus users' assets. Uncertainty surrounding the risk' of certain forms of cryptocurrency has investors looking into alternatives to the main cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Litecoin – looking into the definition of Ripple, Bitcoin's biggest competitor, and researching the advantages of Ether.

After Xi's celebrated speech where he voiced his desire for his country to dominate the blockchain market, Bitcoin jumped to above $10,000. Briefly, though. Just a few short days later, the People's Bank of China urged investors to stay far away from digital currencies and pledged it would continue targeting digital currency exchanges. I am baffled, why aren't the two working in tandem?

At the same time this was happening, China's social media platform Weibo banned users from publishing posts that contain blockchain and crypto trading together. I'm lost. Just what does China want exactly? It bans crypto trading, but is the single largest source of crypto mining in the world. It is estimated that over half of all bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining takes place inside China's boundaries and millions of citizens own and invest in cryptocurrencies. And while the United States has taken a hard look at classifying miners as broker dealers, China seems to have no problem whatsoever with the underlying technology responsible for all these things – blockchain.

Already, China accounts for 25 per cent of new global blockchain projects and holds the most blockchain-related patents in the world. Among the world's largest current blockchain and cryptocurrency firms, most of them operate from within Chinese borders. Over 500 blockchain projects have already registered with China's Cyberspace Administration since last year, and the People's Bank of China – as already mentioned – is on its way to launching a blockchain-based digital currency payment system that could replace cash one day soon.

It seems Jinping declaring blockchain a national priority has actually begun to work. By demanding that Tier 1 and 2 cities implement their own blockchain as well as digital asset policies and standards, China is slowly overlapping all other countries in the blockchain race to dominance. And, given its status as the second largest economy in the world, they have the capacity to maintain such momentum, putting them in a strong position globally moving into the next century.

The post China Takes The Lead on Blockchain appeared first on Datafloq.

Preview of SRE 2020

Together with VMF 2020, Asia's leading vending show, SRE2020 will span'over 80000 sq.m'and host an estimated'700+ exhibitors.'

The co-located events 2020 Guangzhou Int'l Vending Machines and Self-service Facilities Fair (VMF 2020), 2020 Smart Retail World Forum'will also be held for the first time, exploring how technologies like 5G, AI, IoT, VR/AR, biometrics, robotics, and etc are going to change the retail world!'

Review of SRE 2019

Covering an net exhibition area of 13045 sq.m, SRE 2019 and VMF 2019 jointly registered 32505 visits, and attracted 365 leading exhibitors, such as SandStar, Simple/24, Freego, UGOHOUS, HiShop, Sixun, WeChat Pay, Union Pay, Triumen Group, Easy Touch, Foxconn, YoPoint, Xingxing Refrigeration, ThinkBox, Haishen Technology, TCN, Baixue, Sanden, Kimma, Xingyuan, Fulei, WiseShop, Jingpin Hi-tech, Joie Ubique, ORBBEC, CVTE, and etc.'

SRE 2020 Exhibition Scope

• Smart Retail Franchise: convenience stores, super markets, restaurants, grocery stores, cafes, and etc.
• Smart Retail: biometric technologies, smart display & showcase, AI-based retail solutions, customer data analysis systems, big data technologies, POS, ERP, EAS anti-theft systems, CCTV, automatic delivery, and etc.
• Unattended Retail: micro markets, vending machine, unmanned shelves, checkout-free technologies, mobile payment systems, and etc.

It's a great chance for exhibitors of Smart Retail Franchise, Smart Retail Solutions, Unattended Retail/Micro Markets, Payment Systems and etc to showcase their unique products & services to a professional and international audience!'

For more show information, please don't hesitate to contact us!'

SRE 2020 Organizing Committee'

Website:'
https://www.newretailchina.com/alone/alone.php?id=22 Email:'srechina@163.com;sales1@grandeurhk.com;

Visitor Registration: https://newretailchina.com/order/order.php?id=46

Exhibitor Registration: https://newretailchina.com/order/order.php?id=47

The post The 3rd Guangzhou Int’l Smart Retail Expo (SRE 2020) appeared first on Datafloq.

However, for most of us, the Western internet' is known, while the Chinese internet' is less known. Especially their social credit scoring system that enables (online) reputation in China might be relatively unknown. This Sesame Credit scoring system is rapidly changing China and how Chinese citizens interact with each other. Let's have a look what Sesame Credit is and what the effects are:

Sesame Credit's Impact on Society and Privacy

The ability to provide product and service offerings to customers online requires businesses to assess risk. This risk assessment becomes difficult when a reliable online reputation system is practically non-existent. This was the issue that China's emerging credit reporting and scoring industry faced. However, with the help of large private organisations such as Ant Financial, Alibaba's payment affiliate, they developed Sesame Credit. This social scoring system stands to drastically affect society and invade the daily lives of Chinese citizens in a variety of ways.

Alibaba was one of the eight approved technology companies by China's central bank in 2014 to develop online and e-commerce rating systems based on social trust. Ant Financial developed and integrated Sesame Credit into Alipay and assigned social credit scores to Alipay users who have agreed to use the credit-scoring service. Sesame Credit can leverage Alibaba's robust database in conjunction with other factors, such as online transactional history, tax payment history and traffic infraction history, to determine an individual's trustworthiness.

As such, Sesame credit is becoming a nation-wide credit rating system that incorporates social scoring. It is a reputation system unlike anything before. It calculates credit scores based on online shopping habits. For example, an individual who buys diapers may have higher scores than a person who spends money on entertainment, since the diaper transactions would be perceived as being more responsible.

Sesame Credit will impact society as the use of the credit scoring and reporting is incorporated into the everyday life of the Chinese. The program will help China push its development of a nation-wide social credit system. However, it also comes with concerns regarding privacy and transparency of information.

Privacy Concerns

Many individuals were not aware that Sesame Credit rated them when the service initially began. This caused concern, especially because the system lacked 100 percent accuracy. Although China will, of course, use artificial intelligence to improve the system, using the massive amounts of data gathered through the system. Sesame Credit uses big data analytics to assign a social score based not only on a person's dealings with businesses but also on how they interact socially online and offline. This will affect consumers by providing them with access to preferential treatment, such as skipping long lines at the hospital, and access to loans.

However, the Chinese government is not stopping there. Recently, they announced that all cars would be required to have an RFID chip, that can monitor the exact movements of the car. Although the government states it will be just to combat congestion, it will likely be used to increase surveillance. Add to that the 170 million CCTV cameras already in place, many of which are smart cameras, as well as the rapid developments in facial recognition; it is quite likely that increasingly offline actions of Chinese citizens will also contribute, positively or negatively, to their social credit score.

Since the social credit score is a centralised system, controlled by the government, it gives the government tremendous power, rewarding citizens that do well (according to the Chinese government) and punishing them for breaking social trust, such as denial of public office consideration and loss of welfare and social security. The goal is to enhance market economy regulation and penalise people and businesses for poor practices, such as selling toxic food or engaging in bribes. The Chinese government aims to fully implement these measures by 2020.

Online reputation and privacy

Although Sesame Credit could resolve several issues that we face with the Western internet', such as online bullying, online threats and illegal activities such as selling drugs online, it is also a massive violation of privacy. In addition, since the system is controlled by the state, they could easily punish citizens by reducing their score, preventing the person from obtaining a loan or even travel by train of an aeroplane, since increasingly all kinds of services will connect to the social credit system. Therefore, while Sesame Credit enhances the validity of the social trust credit scoring system with improved verification and increased transparency, it is also a very scary system that gives the government total control over their citizens.

Self-Sovereign Reputation

Therefore, the Chinese solution to online reputation, is not the solution to the problems of the Western internet', as we value our privacy. A system that would combine the best practices of the Western Internet' and China's solution, however, could benefit all. We see this as a system where one's actions online are accountable, but where the user remains in control over who sees what; where you can remain anonymous, but still build a reputation and where you can create trust, without knowing the other person, organisation or device. Such a system, not a self-sovereign identity but a self-sovereign reputation, could make the internet more trustworthy and enable global online collaboration and it is exactly what we are building. If you wish to learn more about our solution, feel free to ping me or let me know in the comments below your thoughts on online reputation.

The post What We Can Learn from China’s Sesame Credit appeared first on Datafloq.

Like in the United States and other places around the world, many people in China have turned to online dating sites, hoping to finally find their perfect match. The success rates have been impressive as the number of dating site users has increased. As far as the U.S. is concerned, roughly a fourth to a third of all marriages are now a result of people meeting online, and China is hoping to see similar results. For online dating sites, this level of success is due to one major ingredient: big data analytics.

Perhaps it shouldnt come as a surprise that data plays such an important role for online dating. After all, participants have to input lots of information about themselves, often filling out surveys and questionnaires that give the sites a better picture of who each individual is. This information is quantified in the form of data, and with the use of big data platforms and tools like Apache Spark, online dating businesses can then determine which person matches well with others. The full depth of this analysis largely depends on the site, but many businesses boast of their expertise in hooking people up with those who are very much like each other.

What this all comes down to is behavioral analysis, not unlike how the average online business uses big data to recommend certain products, features, and services based on preferences. The same approach has been used in the U.S. and is being put to use in China.

Many online dating sites in China go beyond the usual analysis of traits, personalities, personal beliefs, values, and other factors. Some sites even go as far as to take socio-economic status into account, analyzing credit ratings and spending behaviors to match people up more effectively.

Some dating businesses even collect users data from wearable devices, leading to more information about exercise patterns, caloric intake, and places they go most often to get in shape. While still theoretical, there has even been some discussion of alerting people via their wearables or smartphones when they are in close proximity to a match. These examples show one principle many online dating businesses are being guided by — mainly that with more data at their disposal, the more precise the matches will be, which will lead to a higher chance of success.

In a sense, this is a natural evolution for the dating world in China. Traditionally, people would find their spouses through matchmaking services usually set up by family and friends, but distrust has grown in recent years over this method. Many Chinese, especially the younger generations, have wanted a greater say in the matchmaking process and more freedom over who they choose to date. Online dating sites and big data analytics have not only allowed people more choice in the matter, but it has also increased the pool of potential date partners.

The future of online dating in China is one full of questions. Right now, the trend seems to point toward more and more people signing up for the service. There also seems to be a greater push for even more big data use. Some sites in the U.S., for example, actually use facial recognition technology as part of the process. They look at facial patterns of previous partners and use that information to find others with similar features. The technology and service is expensive, but it may come to China one day soon.

Many have expressed skepticism about using big data as a selling point for online dating sites. Some point to increased success as only a result of dating from a larger pool of people. Others say boiling down human wants and desires to cold hard data is the wrong way to try to match up people. In any case, its clear online dating is taking off, in part thanks to big data.

The billion dollar industry doesnt appear to be slowing down any time soon, and with big data analytics growing more and more advanced, finding the right match might become easier than ever.

The post How Big Data is Affecting Online Dating in China appeared first on Datafloq.