August 17, 2022
Ben Packham
The Australian
Wednesday 17 August 2022
China’s largest ride-sharing service, DiDi, has been asked to guarantee its Australian users’ personal information is secure.
Opposition cyber security spokesman James Paterson has written to DiDi’s local arm after the company was fined $1.7bn for contravening Chinese personal information laws.
In his August 12 letter, he asked the company’s head of government operations, Maria Silos, to set out the steps the company takes to ensure it is compliant with Australian privacy laws, and whether Australian users’ data is accessible by Chinese entities.
Senator Paterson said ride-sharing apps collected users’ “intimate personal information”, such as home and work addresses, and movements around cities.
“Australians deserve to know exactly how their sensitive private information is being handled by the company, particularly following the massive fine they received in China for failing to protect Chinese users’ data,” he said.
“Only complete transparency about their data-handling processes will reassure Australians about their privacy and cyber security.”
Senator Paterson noted DiDi’s policy states users’ information may be shared with bodies within the DiDi group, business partners and related providers, including in mainland China.
DiDi shareholders voted to delist from the New York Stock Exchange in May, to allow the company to complete a cyber security review ordered by Beijing. The move came amid a surge in the number of Chinese corporate giants exiting US stock exchanges due to disputes over access to their corporate records. DiDi had been hailed in China after it defeated Uber’s bid to gain a foothold in the country. But it became caught up in the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on the country’s booming tech sector.
In July, China’s cyberspace regulator found DiDi had illegally collected 12 million pieces of “screenshot information” from users’ mobile photo albums, and excessively accumulated 107 million pieces of passenger facial recognition information and 1.4 million pieces of family relationship information.
