(China) Chinese academic database fined over privacy breaches – Times Higher Education (Pola Lem | September 2023)
There are a few reasons why anyone sceptical about the motives behind China’s admonishment/fining of a company for privacy breaches should be forgiven. Facial recognition, monitoring of minorities and the stifling of academic freedom on sensitive topics perhaps spring to mind. There is an understandable suspicion that the supposed privacy concerns are a cover for another form of censorship of a body that has been critical of the Chinese regime. We of course apologise if this is a genuine attempt to safeguard the privacy of citizens.