“Just don’t use it, if you don’t like it”
Hong Kong’s Lack of Awareness in Digital Rights
2019 is the 7th year I have been working in the field of digital rights. And the title is usually what I hear after telling people about how “evil” and irresponsible online service providers are nowadays in HK.
At first, I found it hard to argue against it, but something is wrong about saying “don’t use it if you don’t like it”, especially in HK. Can we really avoid using apps, websites and online services simply because we don’t like it or disagree with how they handle our data? Guess not. When you live your life as a Hong-Konger, it is impossible.
An average Uni-student, who lives in a Residential Hall, participates in student associations’ activities, works part-time somewhere, inevitably has to use online services that are known to not protect his or her data. The floor he lives in, have a WhatsApp group for him and his floormates to chitchat, to organize floor meetings, and to decide where to go for dinner. The Student Association he participates, also have a WhatsApp group to delegate tasks and to discuss a workable schedule. If his part-time job is a tutor for primary or secondary school kids, he will have to use communicate with their parents via instant messaging, most likely again is WhatsApp. If he is working part-time in a retailer, then more likely there’s gonna be a group for the company to announce arrangements or for colleagues to cover each others’ shifts.
An average office lady, who works as a secretary 9–5 in Central, meets with her besties or her boyfriend after work, inevitably has to use online services as well. It is a norm in Hong Kong for her to be 24/7 on call in case her boss needs her, and her boss usually sends her a message to give the order via WhatsApp. When she makes plans with her besties, she might as well sends texts in their group which is named “Best Bitches”, and she would undoubtedly update her Instagram story or upload a pretty pic of them when they see each other. After meeting with her Besties after work, she will text her boyfriend that she is on the way home, well, another use of online service.
How can you lead an average life in Hong Kong without using online services? Can we really just say “don’t use it, if you don’ like it”?
Of course, there is always a choice, but isn’t it putting too much burden on an ordinary user? This is clearly unreasonable.
In my early years as a digital right advocate, I used to believe if enough people would care and choose not to use problematic services, things might change as Services Providers would be forced to change in order to survive the market.
I was too naive.
As I have said, we can’t really survive HK without using the services.
As a Hong Konger, we know how blindly loyal we are to our jobs and how afraid we are to lose our jobs, we would not hesitate to sacrifice our work-life balance just to please our boss. Remember the day after the Typhoon in September 2018? With no public transportation available, people really risked their lives to go to work. We are terrified if someone went to work and we did not (even if it’s out of sufficient reasons, like life safety), our boss would fire us. And most importantly, we don’t trust one another, we don’t believe that the guy from the same office would do as he says and stays at home. It’s so pathetic, yet it’s true.
Not only is this mindset placing too much of a burden on ordinary users’ shoulder, but also neglecting the power asymmetry between users and service providers. Facebook, Google or any of those big firms now have competence and influence that can be compared to a sovereign state, if not more powerful and influential. The relationship between them and users are no longer simple seller-buyer relationship.
Ordinary users usually click the “I agree” button without being fully informed or aware of what they are agreeing to. How many of you really read the terms and conditions? Honestly, I don’t. How many of you are at least 80% sure what data are being taken away from you and what are they going to be used for? Very little users have to knowledge or adequate information to give informed consent.
What is worse is that we sometimes cannot even choose which services to use. As an employer in HK, would you dare to ask your superior to switch all the groups for work from WhatsApp to Telegram because the latter is safer? I lived in a Residential Hall in 4 years, and never had the guts to ask my floormates to switch to Telegram, I doubt if someone ever asked and succeed.
The Internet is basically the real world in Hong Kong now. Only those trips and visits that are posted on Instagram or Facebook are considered to have really happened. We as the content providers, however, cannot freely decide on what we got to see on these platforms. Google and Facebook say they determine what you see next on YouTube or which friends’ posts you got to see on your News Feed. But is it really a good thing? If you are in the business sector in HK, it is fundamental for every corporate to have a Facebook Page; if you are an average youngster in HK, you have to have an Instagram account in order to bond with your peers.
And Facebook’s Community Standard will, therefore, limit what you can say and see, which to a large extent shapes our society’s discourse. Should an enterprise have so much power and authority to determine and shape our society? Can they justify it by simply saying it is what the users agreed to when they clicked that “I agree” button without fully understanding what is happening?
Of course, we have laws and regulations, but they are not as capable as an ordinary citizen would imagine. Let’s first ignore how HK is outdated in terms of law and how broken the legislative system is. Facebook’s recent Cambridge Analytica Scandal to a certain extent reflects that there is nothing much a government can do when it comes to this kind of matter.
Under this asymmetry of power, saying “don’t use it, if you don’t like it ” in Hong Kong is clearly ignorant, and is not helping with the situation at all. Oh, what is the solution then? Sorry, I don’t have one either, but I am working hard trying to find one. I hope to discuss in further details of what is happening in HK in the coming writings. I believe somewhere, someday, we would be able to find one that does not sacrifice too much of our privacy and rights and enables corporates to make a profit at the same time.
