Engadget Chinese
China’s Cyberspace Administration of ChinaDidiThe investigation that lasted for more than a year finally came to a conclusion, according to the officialannouncementDidi has the following violations involving 8 aspects:
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Illegal collection of 11,963,900 pieces of snapshot information from users’ mobile phone albums;
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Excessive collection of 8.323 billion pieces of user clipboard information and application chat information;
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Excessive collection of 107 million pieces of passenger face information, 53,509,200 pieces of age group information, 16,335,600 pieces of occupational information, 1,382,900 pieces of family relationship information, and 153 million pieces of “home” and “company” address information;
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Excessive collection of 167 million pieces of precise location information when passengers evaluate the chauffeur service, when the app is running in the background, and when the mobile phone is connected to the driving recorder and other devices;
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Excessive collection of 142,900 pieces of driver education information and saved 57,802,600 pieces of driver ID number information in plain text;
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Analyzed 53.976 billion pieces of travel intention information, 1.538 billion pieces of resident city information, and 304 million pieces of off-site business/tourism information without clearly notifying passengers;
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Frequent requests for unrelated phone permissions when passengers use ridesharing services;
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19 personal data processing purposes, including user device information, are not accurately and clearly stated.
On this basis, Didi was also found to have “data processing activities that seriously affect national security”, and had “refused to fulfill the explicit requirements of the regulatory authorities, violated the law, and maliciously evaded supervision.” In accordance with relevant laws and regulations, the Cyberspace Administration of China decided to impose a fine of RMB 8.026 billion on Didi, and issued a fine of RMB 1 million to each of CEO and Chairman Cheng Wei and President Liu Qing. Considering that in the past year, Didi’s app has been removed from the shelves of major platforms. After this punishment, the chance of his “return” should be very slim.