Why China Doesn't Care About Privacy

For a few days last week, China appeared to have its own, slow-motion Wikileaks. Via Twitter, someone using the handle @shenfenzheng leaked personal information -- such as home addresses and ID numbers -- of some of China's most powerful commercial and government figures, including Alibaba's Jack Ma, Wanda Group's Wang Jianlin and Tencent's Pony Ma.

It was an audacious stunt, but the leaker was clear that it had a higher purpose: "I hope this encourages the nation's scrutiny, and shows how worthless individual data is in China," he (or she) wrote before the account was suspended. There's good reason to be concerned: China is the world's largest market for online and phone scams, many of which take advantage of the country's lax laws and protections for personal information.