EXPLAINER: Why China is investigating tech firms like Didi
ABC NEWSJul 06, 2021
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Thurs. said they fined ride-sharing giant Didi Global $1.19B over allegations that the company violated China's network security, data security, and personal information laws.
The alleged violations included storing the personal information of its 57M drivers in an unsecured format and collecting information like passengers' phone photos and facial recognition data without their consent.
Chinese tech companies have grown so large in recent years that China has needed to intervene to stop them from exercising monopolistic practices and collecting users' personal data. This is a positive step for the Chinese government in its goal of protecting both consumers' privacy and smaller companies that wish to enter the tech market.
Didi's fine isn't the result of the Chinese Communist Party's concern for people's privacy, but rather its obvious attempt to not only cut tech startups off from foreign investments - like the NY Stock Exchange - but also to take government control over user data for political reasons.
There's a 50% chance that China's most surveilled city will have at least 122 surveillance cameras per 1000 people by 2023, according to the Metaculus prediction community.