纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英中国拟推行网络身份证保护隐私还是加强监控

It’s hard to be anonymous online in China. Websites and apps must verify users with their phone numbers, which are tied to personal identification numbers that all adults are assigned.

在中国，在网上保持匿名是件很难的事。网站和应用程序必须使用手机号码来验证用户身份，而手机号码则与所有成年人的个人身份号码绑定。

Now it could get more difficult under a proposal by China’s internet regulators: The government wants to take over the job of verification from the companies and give people a single ID to use across the internet.

现在，根据中国互联网监管机构的一项提议，匿名可能会变得更加困难：政府希望从企业手中接管身份验证工作，并为人们提供一个统一的网络身份。

The Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China say the proposal is meant to protect privacy and prevent online fraud.

中国公安部和国家互联网信息办公室表示，该提案旨在保护隐私，防止网络欺诈。

A national internet ID would reduce “the excessive collection and retention of citizens’ personal information by internet platforms on the grounds of implementing real-name registration,” the regulators said.

监管机构表示，全国互联网身份认证将减少“互联网平台以落实‘实名制’为由超范围采集、留存公民个人信息”。

Use of the ID system by websites and apps would be voluntary, according to the proposal, which is open for public comment until the end of August.

根据该提案，网站和应用程序自愿使用这个身份认证系统，该提案目前公开征求公众意见，直至8月底。

The Chinese government has for years exercised tight control over information, and it closely monitors people’s behavior on the internet. Over the last few years, China’s biggest social media platforms, like the microblogging site Weibo, the lifestyle app Xiaohongshu and the short video app Douyin, have started to display users’ locations in their posts.

中国政府多年来对信息实施严格控制，密切监视人们在互联网上的行为。在过去的几年里，中国最大的社交媒体平台，如微博、小红书和抖音，已经在帖子中显示用户所在位置。

But until now, that control has been fragmented as censors have had to track people across different online platforms. A national internet ID could centralize it.

但到目前为止，这种控制是分散的，因为审查人员只能在不同的网络平台上对人们进行跟踪。一个全国性的互联网身份证可以实现集中监管。

“With this internet ID, your every move online, all your digital traces, will be monitored by the regulators,” said Rose Luqiu, an assistant professor of journalism at the Hong Kong Baptist University. “That will definitely impact people’s behavior.”

“有了这个互联网身份证，你在网上的一举一动，你所有的数字痕迹，都将受到监管机构的监控，”香港浸会大学新闻系助理教授闾丘露薇说。“这肯定会影响人们的行为。”

On Weibo, the proposal became a trending topic since it was released on Friday. Many comments echoed regulators’ concerns that too many different apps had access to their personal information.

自上周五该提案发布以来，它就成了微博上的热门话题。许多评论赞同监管机构的担忧，认为有太多不同的应用程序可以访问他们的个人信息。

Dr. Luqiu said many influencers had embraced the narrative that the online platforms profited off people’s personal information and were unable to protect their privacy.

闾丘露薇说，许多网红接受了这样一种说法——网络平台从人们的个人信息中获利，无法保护他们的隐私。

Some Chinese legal scholars said a system of national internet IDs risked giving the government too much power to monitor what people do online.

中国的一些法律学者表示，全国互联网身份证系统可能会赋予政府过大的权力来监控人们在网上的行为。

The protection of personal information is merely a pretense to make social control routine and regular, Lao Dongyan, a law professor at Tsinghua University, warned in a post that she said had since been taken down. Ms. Lao compared the system to the Chinese government’s health code app that tracked people’s movements during the Covid-19 pandemic.

清华大学法学教授劳东燕在一篇帖子中警告，保护个人信息只是一种幌子，目的是让社会控制变得常规化和规范化。她说这篇帖子已被删除。劳东燕将该系统与中国政府在新冠大流行期间追踪人们活动的健康码相提并论。

Another law professor, Shen Kui of Peking University, said in a commentary posted online that a centralized internet ID would make people fear using the internet.

另一位法学教授、北京大学的沈奎在网上发表的一篇评论文章中表示，集中管理的互联网身份证会让人们害怕使用互联网。

“The potential risks and harms of a unified ‘internet ID’ and ‘internet license’ are immense,” he wrote.

“统一‘网号’‘网证’的潜在风险、危害是巨大的，”他写道。