Ride-hailing giant Didi fined $1.2 billion for data violations by China’s internet watchdog

China’s internet watchdog on Thursday fined trip-hailing firm Didi International extra than 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) following an investigation into the company’s cybersecurity tactics.

The probe found Didi violated China’s community security regulation, data security legislation and a regulation protecting personal facts, the Cyberspace Administration of China stated in a statement.

A separate statement outlining the good reported Didi’s “illegal operations” had introduced “serious” nationwide protection hazards, influencing the country’s information infrastructure and knowledge security.

Didi’s chairman Cheng Wei and president Jean Liu were being fined 1 million yuan ($148,000) just about every as they ended up held dependable for the company’s violations, regulators reported.

“Didi’s violations of guidelines and rules are really serious, and in light-weight of the network security critique, they really should be severely punished,” the statement study.

Didi illegally collected nearly 12 million screenshots and 107 million items of travellers facial recognition details and more than 167 million information of site knowledge, among other details, regulators explained. The company’s violations 1st commenced in June 2015.

Didi said in a assertion posted to its official Weibo social media account that it “sincerely” acknowledged the selection.

“We will choose this as a warning, and persist in spending equal consideration to both of those safety and progress,” Didi mentioned, introducing that it would get the job done towards “safe, healthful and sustainable” progress of its business enterprise.

The decision comes around a year after Didi pushed forward with its New York stock listing in June 2021.

Regulators, who reportedly did not approve of Didi’s listing, introduced the investigation two days following the enterprise went general public and purchased it to get down more than two dozen apps, sending its stock selling price plunging.

Didi moved to delist from the New York stock trade, exiting on June 10.

The journey-hailing agency is among the a slew of internet know-how firms that have confronted shut scrutiny for the duration of a crackdown on the engineering market that began in 2020, with regulators halting Alibaba-affiliated financial technological innovation business Ant Group’s preliminary community presenting.