With the advent of big data, privacy and information security have become one of the most widely discussed issues in using big data. Domestic and foreign researchers have made some achievements regarding the conflict and balance between big data sharing and privacy protection. Still, the public as the core stakeholder has been somewhat ignored. As for the privacy issue of personal information collection and processing in the era of big data, there is still a lack of research on public understanding. So this study taking Sina Weibo, a widely used social media in China, as the object, we collected the content analysis of all items about big data and privacy from January to February 2020. In addition, 214 questionnaires were taken by members of the public in the Beijing area in April 2021. On the basis of the above two types of research, the current status of "public understanding of big data" in mainland China is summarized as follows: (1) the public has a limited understanding of the privacy issues brought by big data technology; (2) Communication of various media is not in place; (3) There is no systematic open supervision mechanism for monitoring of big data technology. The possible deep reasons and the solution under the concept of public understanding science are discussed.

big data  /  privacy right  /  public understanding of science  /  Weibo