Tech giants and internet companies such as Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent have provided information about their algorithms to the Chinese government for the first time. Since March this year, it has been mandatory for the largest tech companies in China to share that information with the government.
Sharing algorithms
The power of apps such as TikTok and Facebook lies in the unique algorithms that determine which content is interesting for a specific user. Their success largely depends on it, which is why they are often well-kept secrets.
That will now change in China, where it is now mandatory for large tech and internet companies to share information about their algorithms with the Cyber Agency China (CAC). 30 big companies, have now done that for the first time, know that Bloomberg. This concerns names such as internet giant Alibaba, ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok, Nvdr.) and the tech company Tencent.
Part public, part secret
In a public list you can find a short description of what their algorithms do and what they serve. However, the CAC also received more extensive information from the companies, but the precise content has not been made public. This concerns information related to security, the type of data that is processed and the training of algorithms.
ByteDance did share information about its algorithms with its home country, but not data about TikTok. That’s because that service isn’t available in China. Instead, China learned more about TikTok’s Chinese brother, Douyin.
Data protection
The obligation to share details about the algorithms in China is part of a package of new laws designed to protect the personal information of Chinese citizens. The European Union will impose stricter rules on tech companies in 2023, and that will have a lot of consequences for you too. In addition, the EU is also introducing stricter requirements on how governments process their citizens’ data.
– Thanks for information from Androidworld. Source