How to protect the user's privacy border with the function of pushing blind watermarks such as Douban?

Picture source: Oriental IC

Recently, some netizens broke the news on social media that it was found that a community platform appeared on the blind watermark function in the screenshots of the APP and the web page, including information such as user UID.

Earlier this year, Douban, another community platform, also launched a blind watermark. The user who has logged in may display its account ID at the time of screenshots, including the complete time of UID, TID and the time zone.

The analysis believes that similar community platforms, or through the addition of blind watermark functions, establish a friendly discussion environment, and gather more people with similar views to create a more in line with the platform -based community atmosphere.

Is this behavior of the platform reasonable and legal? The industry generally believes that first of all, the blind watermarks set by the platform include what kind of information of the user, and whether the information meets the requirements of relevant laws and regulations when collecting information. At the same time, the most important point is that users have the right to know, and the platform should inform the user before setting the blind watermark function.

Douban and other community platforms have tested blind watermark functions successively

In response to the blind watermark function on the platform, relevant persons of the platform responded to the Blue Whale Finance reporter that recently, the station has conducted experimental function tests in a small area. After a short -term test, the experimental function has been offline. However, the official did not explain the specific purpose of the test.

It is reported that the blind water printing of the community platform is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, and there will be no reminders during the user screenshot. appear.

In general, if the user forwards the screenshot of the webpage information to others, although it has spread many times, the terminal can still trace back to the first -hand communication of the picture through a specific picture detection method, and via UID or TID (autonomous autonomous (autonomous autonomous (autonomous autonomy Intellectual Property Object Registration Code) determines the identity of the user.

Earlier this year, Douban also launched a blind watermark function. The user who has logged in may display its account ID at the time of screenshots, including the complete time of UID, TID and the time zone.

At that time, Douban responded that this was a new "group content prevention and handling function". The team leader can open or close The screenshot will automatically generate the encrypted [Screenshot user ID, the screenshot ID ID, and screenshot time] information.

For the group that has opened this function, you can see the "content from the XXX group, the group has opened the anti -handling function" below the group post.

Douban said that the purpose of this function is to protect the original information property rights. When the information dissemination occurs, the "blind watermark" can be traced through the "blind watermark". source.

Expert: You should tell the user before setting the function of the blind watermark

Relevant experts said that the platform sets up screenshots blind watermarks or for three considerations. One is that the enterprise has confidentiality needs. If information is leaked, the watermark can help trace the source of accountability; the second is for the purpose of intellectual property protection; If a safety event occurs, evidence can be obtained in this way.

However, is the behavior of the platform reasonable and legal?

The industry generally believes that first of all, the blind watermarks set by the platform include what kind of information of the user, and whether the information meets the requirements of relevant laws and regulations when collecting information.

At the same time, the most important point is that the platform should inform users before setting up the blind watermark function, and users have the right to know.

Analysts believe that the practice of the above community platforms is a bit poor. Although the official response stated that the blind water mark function was removed after a short experiment, the experiment was not made public during the entire experiment, and the experimental user account was undergoing experiments.

"It is not difficult to imagine that if the user discovered the" blind watermark "in the picture first, and then uploaded to the social platform to cause public opinion, whether the direction of the experiment is still unknown as the official short -term removal is still being implemented."

"The reason why blind watermarks cause many netizens to dislike the right to know the right to know users. As an online user community platform, it is right to protect information with blind watermarks, but the platform should stop. The source of information is still accountable, and the software has always served users. Respect the user's right to know, that is, respect the original intention of the community. "The above analysts said.

How to guard the privacy border of users on the community platform?

In the final analysis, in the era of big data, where is the personal privacy boundary on the community platform, it is an important issue. Financial critics Shui Pi believes that this is not only a technical issue, but also an ethical issue. It is a problem related to the border between scientific ethics and social legal order.

At present, the privacy border is generally divided into two parts. One is the private boundary, that is, only I know this part of information and have the right to deal with it. Essence

The social media has greatly expanded the common border of privacy. For example, Douban establishes a friendly discussion environment by adding a blind watermark function, and gathering more people with similar views to create a community atmosphere that is more in line with the platform tone.

For users, who can have information with themselves cannot be estimated and controlled. "After all, the blind watermark contains personal information. As a community platform, Douban uses personal information in this regard, and may indirectly spread relevant information. It is suspected of infringing privacy. Perhaps because of this, the Douban group will clearly prompts that it has opened up. For the anti -moving function, users will not have the right to know at all. "Analysts said. Legal experts believe that the confusion of public and private limits makes the privacy boundary between netizens and netizens become more complicated or even out of control. At the same time, the privacy issues in social networks are not only the game between users and users, but also a struggle between users and technology. In this unequal struggle between users and technology, users' privacy has become the biggest victim.

So, how should the platform deal with such problems properly? Wang Xiaoxia, general manager of Tencent Big Data Legal Compliance, pointed out that the data and privacy protection teams of cross -departments, cross -business, cross -system data should be established. Control the personal information to create a safe and reliable online environment for users.

The industry lawyers suggest that the Internet platform should be required to bear more personal privacy protection responsibilities. At the same time, the online information department shall formulate and introduce a clearer Internet platform management rules on the basis of the "Personal Information Protection Law" in order to strengthen supervision and clarify the responsibilities and corresponding penalties that the Internet platform should bear in the field of online privacy protection.

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