[Plura-list] China’s war on big data backstabbing; Someone Comes to Town Part 25

[Cory Doctorow]

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Delighted to learn that Attack Surface has been nominated for 2021's
Prometheus Award, along with Martha Wells's "Network Effect" and five
others!

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Today's links

* China’s war on big data backstabbing: China's antimonopoly, grounded
in price discrimination.

* Someone Comes to Town Part 25: This week on my podcast.

* This day in history: 2015, 2019

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current
writing projects, current reading

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🧶 China’s war on big data backstabbing

China has a different relationship with its tech monopolies than the US
does, thanks to a combination of state ownership, state investment,
crossovers between Party members and PLA veterans with the directorships
and leadership of Chinese Big Tech.

Both countries use their Big Tech firms to project soft power (and
surveillance capabilities) around the world, of course, and the US tech
industry is certainly part of the US military-industrial complex, but
that relationship is more tacit than explicit.

But overt or tacit, explicit or unspoken, monopolistic power harms the
public and - eventually - challenges the power of the state, which
creates coalitions between the public and their governments to fight
back against corporate concentration and dominance.

In November, the Chinese State Administration for Market Supervision
published a draft "New Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Platform
Economy," proposing ambitious curbs on Chinese tech monopoly power.

http://www.samr.gov.cn/hd/zjdc/202011/t20201109_323234.html

The centerpiece of these regulations are prohibitions on "Big Data
Backstabbing" - using digital surveillance to dynamically price goods
according to a merchant's guess at how much you're willing to pay.

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006494/can-a-new-regulation-fix-chinas-big-data-backstabbing-problem%3F

While it's hard to know if you're being backstabbed, it's an article of
faith among Chinese internet users that this is going on: 88% believe it
occurs, and 57% believe they've been a victim of it.

Backstabbing is thought of as a kind of anti-loyalty reward whereby
existing customers are charged higher prices; the popular memes for this
are:

* "Old users are treated worse than dogs”

* “It’s the people who know you best who hurt you the most"

https://www.zhihu.com/question/351082788

Price discrimination is one of those subjects that reveal the cracks in
economics: economists (especially the ruling neoclassical cult) consider
price discrimination "optimal" and argue that economies with widespread
price discrimination are better at allocating resources.

But people *hate* price-discrimination. Think of the universal loathing
we have for the ever-shifting, opaque system by which the airlines price
seats (AA is so desperate that they're offering a "always lowest price"
package to fliers who prepay for $5k/year of travel).

Price discrimination is so widely and automatically viewed as unfair -
despite economists' claims of "optimalness" - that companies have to
hide their price discrimination and lie about it or use euphemisms for
it, which just makes the whole thing seem even shadier.

It's a perfect wedge issue to rally popular support for the wonky world
of anti-monopoly enforcement, so that states that defend their power
from corporations can secure a massive cohort of pissed-off shoppers to
back their play.

Article 17 of the new proposed Chinese rules sets out the factors that
can lead to a finding of "discriminatory treatment" in a transaction,
giving regulators leeway to punish data-mining to determine a buyer's
purchasing power or history, online activity, or preferences.

Interestingly, it's not a firm requirement: the rule *allows* regulators
to consider data-mining-based discrimination, but does not require them
to when investigating accusations of ripoffs.

The rule also carves out some broadly defined "safe harbors" for
platforms, like offering promotions to attract new customers, and,
according to Sixth Tone's analysis by Shen Weiwei, allows companies to
use credit histories to practice price discrimination - a huge loophole.

Shen suggests that the vagueness of the rules are a feature, not a bug,
allowing regulators to practice forbearance when it comes to conduct
they don't consider odious, and cracking down selectively on those they
judge to be the worst offenders.

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🧶 Someone Comes to Town Part 25

This week on my podcast: part 25 of my serialized reading of "Someone
Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town," my 2006 novel that Gene Wolfe
called "a glorious book unlike any book you’ve ever read."

https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/12/07/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-25/

You can catch up on the other installments here:

https://craphound.com/podcast/?s=%22someone%20comes%22

and subscribe to my podcast feed here:

https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

Here's a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet
Archive; they'll host your stuff for free, forever, too!):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_370/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_370_-_Someone_Comes_to_Town_Someone_Leaves_Town_025.mp3

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🧶 This day in history

#5yrsago Multi-generational cruelty: America’s prisons shutting down
kids’ visitations
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/2-7m-kids-have-parents-in-prison-theyre-losing-their-right-to-visit/

#5yrsago Harvard Business School: Talented assholes are more trouble
than they’re worth
https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/16-057_d45c0b4f-fa19-49de-8f1b-4b12fe054fea.pdf

#5yrsago Thomas Piketty seminar on Crooked Timber
https://crookedtimber.org/2016/01/04/thomas-piketty-seminar/

#1yrago Cops and spooks all over the world rely on a junk-science
“walking polygraph” method to steer their investigation
https://www.propublica.org/article/why-are-cops-around-the-world-using-this-outlandish-mindreading-tool

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🧶 Colophon

Today's top sources: Naked Capitalism (https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/).

Currently writing: My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel
about truth and reconciliation. Yesterday's progress: 515 words (86836
total).

Currently reading: The City We Became, NK Jemisin

Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 25)
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/12/07/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-25/

Upcoming appearances:

*  Monopoly, Not Mind Control: What's Really Happening With
"Surveillance Capitalism," Dec 8,
https://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20201208-doctorow/

* Colloquium on Information Security, Dec 14
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-31st-hphpe-virtual-colloquium-on-information-security-tickets-128859336745

* Keynote, NISO Plus, Feb 22-25,
https://niso.plus/cory-doctorow-to-keynote-at-niso-plus-2021/

Recent appearances:

* Worldshapers
https://theworldshapers.com/2020/12/06/episode-72-cory-doctorow/

* A More Competitive Web (Techdirt Podcast):
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201201/10183045801/techdirt-podcast-episode-264-more-competitive-web-with-cory-doctorow-daphne-keller.shtml

* Big Tech Podcast:
https://www.cigionline.org/big-tech/cory-doctorow-true-dangers-surveillance-capitalism

Latest book:

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone
technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political
cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution
and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
solution.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially,
provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link
to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are
included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the
basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla* -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla

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