Editor's Note: David Lee is a consultant and author based in Beijing who works on cross-cutting themes of energy, health, international politics and international development. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Facebook is entangled in yet another data privacy scandal, which seems to be only usual nowadays. What's not usual about this new allegation against Facebook, however, is the fact that multiple stakeholders without clearly defined responsibilities are involved in an intricate network linking up private data with increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence. The bottom line, therefore, is to what extend we allow artificial intelligence to eavesdrop on us in a lagging and murky regulatory environment.

According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, multiple mobile apps that collect user data such as periods and heart rates share such highly sensitive personal data with Facebook, even if the user does not have a Facebook account. The apps reportedly send the data using Facebook's software development kit, or SDK, which includes an analytics service.

Data thus collected and analyzed is apparently used for online advertising purpose, which, as claimed by a Facebook spokesperson, is industry standard practice. According to the Facebook spokesperson, the company requires "app developers to be clear with their users about the information they are sharing with us." Moreover, Facebook has declared that the company "prohibits app developers from sending us sensitive data" and "takes steps to detect and remove data that should not be shared with us."

In the end, Facebook is far from being innocuous, as it claims to be. What's most frightening about this case is to think about how powerful artificial intelligence-enabled big data analysis engines, operated by an all-powerful big tech, work on our data to generate precision personal profiles for purposes unknown to ourselves. This constitutes the worst eavesdropping nightmare possible.

While average tech users refuse to eavesdrop by artificial intelligence, a couple of serious questions must be asked of Facebook as the number of its scandals mount: Why does a leading tech giant allow itself to degenerate into being synonymous with privacy infringement? Why does Facebook, as a leading tech inventor and user, fail to take voluntary, proactive measures to prevent artificial intelligence from eavesdropping on users? 

In the financial sector, "too big to fail" has been proven wrong, as unscrupulous actors were punished by the unforgiving market. In the hi-tech world likewise, even the backing of big revenues and promising tech solutions won't guarantee "too fancy to fail" status.

Yet this case is far beyond Facebook alone. A review of the data lifecycle reveals significant grey areas on both data collecting and receiving ends where either unscrupulous or negligent actors can do big harm. Apparently current playbooks are inadequate to address evolving technologies: Whereas Facebook easily came up with defense for itself, app developers would be able to do the same without a doubt.

Concerns about artificial intelligence are many, and privacy is only one of them. In the foreseeable future, regulation will surely evolve. It can be safely argued that future artificial intelligence will be super powerful beyond our current imagination; therefore, it's all the more important that we humans get the playbook right from the very beginning, to level our playing ground with artificial intelligence.

While adaptive regulation shall leave room for innovation, currently there is simply too much grey when it comes to data gathering and use. As a tech user who wants to enjoy the wonder of hi-tech but insists not to lose human control of personal information, I'd call for a bit more black-and-white rules, to regulate not only big techs like Facebook, but also all stakeholders involved in the information-sharing chain.

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