Game Theory of large data

Reporter: On the one hand, we need to use large data to provide services, we will upload data, on the other hand, the data to other people to analyze, will reveal privacy. Is this a paradox?

Kodai Stone:

Data privacy is actually a matter of how data is handled. If someone finds out that I have 250,000 dollars in my bank account, it's a breach of privacy. But if the system needs to know that a bank user's account has 250,000 dollars, then this is not a privacy issue. Therefore, large data analysis tends to use data separation method to solve this paradox. The bank will anonymously process the data, separating people's names, identities and actual data. This is not for a person, but for the whole group of anonymous processing. However, if you do manipulate and process data at an individual level, it is impossible to protect privacy by anonymity. In fact, based on the "similarity" of data analysis, Amazon can tell me a series of information when I buy books, such as what books people buy in my position, what books they read, and the second books that people who read the first book tend to buy. I want to know the information, but I don't want anyone else to know. There is a real problem with data confidentiality.

Overall, large data does not necessarily endanger privacy. But, obviously, if you have some information and need to transfer that information to someone else's hand, you need to ask yourself whether they will steal your data and betray trust and divulge your information to others. But it's a big problem, and it's not just in the electronic age, or the big data age. For example, I don't think this question is necessarily worse than a bank clerk running to tell people how much money I have in the bank. The issue of leaks has been there before, but I believe the technology of information protection is developing rapidly.

There is always a race between the good and the bad. Unfortunately, the bad guys always have the initiative, because you can only protect where you think there may be problems. You don't know what new ways of stealing data are likely to come tomorrow.

But so far, things are still within reach, though one can say that we are on the verge of disaster. Many people fighting in the information security industry want to create more protective systems. There is no way to circumvent the controversy that you are talking about. Bad guys always exist. They do everything they can to steal data, and you want to make sure the data is protected.

Reporter: Today's young people are accustomed to living in the virtual world, in many cases, people through social networks and other software, the initiative to disclose privacy, this means that the meaning of the word "privacy" is changing?

Kodai Stone:

This is indeed an interesting phenomenon. People sometimes act as if they are not concerned with the safety of their data and actively expose some information. People, for example, publish every aspect of their lives on social networks. Especially for the younger generation, they often publish a lot of information that in the past seemed to be private. But I think even young people will start to focus on data security at a certain time and think about why we want to expose data. In particular, when you realize the consequences of exposing data to others. For example, girls are being taken advantage of, and employers who know your personal information say they are not willing to hire you because they are dissatisfied with your past behavior.

Social networks are still very young. I think, in about three or four years, you'll see a slightly more stable state. People will be more exposed than they were 20 years ago, but people will be able to tell which information is private and unwilling to make it public.

Now, there have been some anonymous social networks. You can chat without telling your identity. I think this trend will become more and more common because people have a strong desire to communicate and discuss. The only thing they don't want to do is connect the information they disclose to their identities. There will be a new balance in the future, just as something that was considered private 15 years ago is no longer a hidden secret. But there will be new things that are considered private.

Interviewer: What do you think of Google's "forgotten service", which seems to be just to keep personal information from being searched instead of being deleted?

Kodai Stone:

Here, we talk about things that are related to network regulation. The key to this problem is that if I ask the search engine to hide my information, does the Internet enterprise have the right to keep this information? This is where the control is really needed. Sometimes people want to hide their message because information leaks can cause them to suddenly get hurt. For example, I don't want to leave my photos at the service provider or the print shop where I take pictures. But there is a situation in the United States, if your credit card has bad debts, then the credit management agency to keep your credit record is completely legal.

Countries have national network management institutions, such as China's Ministry of the Treasury, the United States Federal Communications Commission. Managers need to be clear about what kind of information they are hiding. The definition of information privacy cannot be blurred. Either the regulatory agency or consumer advocacy groups need to define the concept. I very much agree with you that if personal information is preserved, it is not a hidden message.

Journalist: You worked in a big business like Microsoft, and now you're doing some small internet business.

Kodai Stone:

I used to work at Microsoft. If you look at Microsoft, you'll find that Microsoft is good at what I've been doing. Today's leaders in the mobile OS are all big companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Big companies may be very good at some things, but they are deficient in other things. Big businesses can change the world and do bigger things. But sometimes, in order to solve a problem, you don't want to get bogged down in the political struggles or complicated processes of big companies. If you think about what you want to do, you should do it in a small company, go to your investors and get money, and then realize your dreams.

My focus now is on China's advertising and media industries, and I want to combine traditional media with mobile internet, which is my interest. If you go to Microsoft or other big companies, they usually mechanically the patterns that apply elsewhere directly to China. And investors and I believe that the way to advertise in China should be different from that in the US. The United States is in the forefront of advertising, and China is still a blank. I don't want to move the standardised systems of other countries around, because sometimes it doesn't apply. I want to take a local approach and really integrate into China's advertising industry.

Journalist: Why are you interested in the Chinese market?

Kodai Stone:

The Chinese market is very attractive and consistent. The first time I came to China was 1994, when I was with Bill Gates. You can see the potential of the Chinese market, the great progress made, and the rapid economic development. When we came to Beijing for 1994 years, we saw a lot of bicycles on the street. 5 years later, when I came to China again, I saw big loops and cars everywhere. It touched me a lot.

Today the largest Internet industry kingdom is China, not America. In China, it's exciting that people are innovating and moving fast. I hope to integrate into the development of Chinese Internet. I never regretted it. I think it's fascinating. And we're just getting started. Chinese consumers sometimes use American technology. Sometimes you use your own technology. But one interesting question to ask is whether there is a Chinese technology that American consumers want to use.

If we have a product that is being used well in the United States, we assume that the Chinese should also use it, which is too arrogant and arrogant, because consumers in different countries have different needs. On the one hand, the Internet industry in the United States started earlier than China. On the other hand, China's development is very rapid. It is clear that the base of China and the United States is different. China's base is very large. We want to see what kind of development China will make in this respect.

Reporter: Some people say, after the user may have only terminal, and no longer need the computing system, because the software, computing is done in the cloud. Do you think the future is like this?

Kodai Stone:

Maybe so, maybe not. This is a very likely future state. What we call cloud is actually closely related to virtualization.

Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, you want to have a virtual machine near at hand. You don't want this virtual machine to be in a data center, but in your computer. So you still need to use a computer, that is, a device that does not require a server to operate. And when you need to, you just put the virtual machine back to your server, your data and information is synchronized.

Sometimes, in a particular case, you need a local cloud service, let's call it "local cloud". This local cloud requires that you have something very similar to our laptop today. So, this is a much more powerful processor than the one you just use for input and output. Interestingly, these things can appear in any shape or size. You can even put them in your cell phone.

So I think you'll see a variety of devices. In the past, what we can see is probably just different computer windows, that's all we can get. But today, we have Google computers, Microsoft tablets, ipads, and all kinds of tablet computers. You can see a variety of mobile phone styles, and they have different computing power and strengths, you can choose according to your needs and economic situation. You need to choose the tools you want to use.