Views: Privacy Problem

(Beijing) – Baidu Inc. recently won an appeal of a lawsuit that allows it to continue running ads targeting users based on what they search for on the Internet. The case dates back to 2013 when a woman named Zhu Ye from the eastern city of Nanjing sued the search giant, claiming its actions violated her privacy because she was seeing ads related to what she searched for on Baidu. The practice, known as targeted advertising, has been controversial in other countries, but did not become an issue in China until Zhu's complaint. She won her initial lawsuit, which revolved around what user information Baidu can store, but the company recently prevailed in an appeal. With many people worrying about their privacy in this digital age, China will likely see more conflicts of this type in the future. Caixin exchanged emails with a young American and two people who handle Internet security for a major auditing company to get their take on the topic.