Trafficking Data: How China Is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty

"Trafficking Data argues that the movement of human data across borders for political and financial gain is disenfranchising consumers, eroding national autonomy, and destabilizing sovereignty. Focusing on the United States and China, it traces how US government leadership failures, Silicon Valley's disruption fetish, and Wall Street's addiction to growth have yielded an unprecedented opportunity for Chinese firms to gather data in the United States and quietly send it back to China, and by extension, the Chinese government. Such "data trafficking," as the book names this insidious phenomenon, is enabled by the competing governance models of the world's two largest economies: mass government data aggregation in China and impenetrable corporate data management policies in the United States. China is stepping up its data trafficking efforts through national regulations, soft power persuasion, and tech investment, extending the scope of state control over domestic and international data and tech infrastructure, and thereby expanding its global influence. The United States, by contrast, is retreating from participation in foreign alliances, international organizations, and the systemic regulation of the tech industry-practices with the potential to counter data trafficking. Confronting data trafficking as the defining international competition of the twenty-first century, this book ultimately advocates for an alternative future of data stabilization. To stem data trafficking and stabilize data flows, it shows, policymakers can synthesize tools from across the private sector, public sector, multi-national organizations, and consumers to protect users, secure national sovereignty, and establish valuable international standards"--
In Trafficking Data, Aynne Kokas looks at how technology firms in the two largest economies in the world, the United States and China, have exploited government policy (and the lack thereof) to gather information on citizens, putting US national security at risk. Kokas shows how US corporations' influence on tech regulation paved the way for exploitative data gathering, not just by US corporations, but by Chinese corporations as well. To resolve this issue in the US requires changing foundational values not just in the tech ecosystem, but in the relationship between industry and government in the United States.
Bronze Award, Axiom Business Book AwardsGold Medalist in Finance/Investing/Economics, Ippy AwardsFrom TikTok and Fortnite to Grindr and Facebook, Aynne Kokas delivers an urgent look into the technology firms that gather our data, and how the Chinese government is capitalizing on this data flow for political gain.On August 6, 2020, the Trump Administration issued a ban on TikTok in the United States, requiring that the owner, Beijing-based Bytedance, sell the company to American investors or shut it down. Legions of TikTokers were devastated at the possible loss of their beloved platform, and for what: a political grudge with China? American suitors like Walmart and Oracle tried to make a deal with Bytedance to keep the platform operating in the US. But then something curious happened. The Chinese government refused to let Bytedance sell TikTok on national security grounds. As it turns out, the pandemic era platform for dance challenges is a Chinese government asset. As digital technologies and social media have evolved into organizing forces for the way in which we conduct our work and social lives, the business logic that undergirds these digital platforms has become clear: we are their product. We give these businesses information about everything--from where we live and work to what we like to do for entertainment, what we consume, where we travel, what we think politically, and with whom we are friends and acquaintances. We do this willingly, but often without a full understanding of how this information is stored or used, or what happens to it when it crosses international boundaries. As Aynne Kokas argues, both corporations and governments "traffic" much of this data without our consent--and sometimes illegally--for political and financial gain. In Trafficking Data, Aynne Kokas looks at how technology firms in the two largest economies in the world, the United States and China, have exploited government policy (and the lack thereof) to gather information on citizens, putting US national security at risk. Kokas argues that US government leadership failures, Silicon Valley's disruption fetish, and Wall Street's addiction to growth have fuelled China's technological goldrush. In turn, American complacency yields an unprecedented opportunity for Chinese firms to gather data in the United States and quietly send it back to China, and by extension, to the Chinese government. Drawing on years of fieldwork in the US and China and a large trove of corporate and policy documents, Trafficking Data explains how China is fast becoming the global leader in internet governance and policy, and thus of the data that defines our public and private lives.