Because of fresh allegations and a criminal probe, Chinese ride sharing app ‘Didi’ has been asked by Chinese Ministry to stop adding new users and has asked app sharing platforms to delete the app as it was not complying with the data storage and security laws that existed in Republic of China.
The Xi Jinping led nation states Didi was sharing its user data with US authorities, a direct breach of the prevailing data privacy laws set by the Cyberspace Association of China (CAC) on July 2nd, 2021.
Thus, Didi has joined the list of two other companies that have been barred from adding new business users to their company platform until further orders are issued.
CAC alleges Didi has breached many laws pertaining to personal data collection, storage and security and will face legal consequences if it fails to further comply with its orders.
On business perspective, Didi Chuxing Technology Co. based in Beijing offers vehicle hiring and sharing services via app to over 550 million users and tens and millions of drivers. It was a part of Uber China business for sometime and stores a set of information related to its users on its local servers that include trip data, route details, any pit-stops, user location, and the payment mode- all for analytical purposes.
CAC is alleging that Didi is indulging in collection of personal info than is required and is passing on the data to its American counterparts for record and other purposes. The data watchdog of China says that it has valid proof that Didi is also collecting info from cars equipped with cameras meant to monitor road conditions and has collected info related to 105 billion kilometers of Chinese roads per year causing serious threat to cyber sovereignty.
For this reason, the nation has barred some of the business activities of the vehicle hiring company and has asked to submit a report on how it conducts its business operations, collects data from users, stores it and keeps it safe from prying eyes o adversaries.
Note- As per the new law executed in 2017, all companies doing business in china should store their user data on local servers and take all necessary security measures to keep them out of site of nation funded hackers and advertising companies.
