China Tightens Ride-Hailing Regulations After Record Didi Fine

China’s transport ministry has introduced stricter regulations on how ride-hailing companies should handle their data and share it with regulators, in the latest sign that the government is not planning to relax its vigilance on the tech sector following a record $1.2bn (£1bn) fine imposed on Didi Global last week.

The fine, which was the country’s largest-ever for data-protection violations, ended a year-long probe of China’s biggest ride-hailing firm and was the latest move in a nearly two-year-long crackdown on the tech sector that began in late 2020.

In addition to national security concerns, China’s cyberspace regulator said Didi had stored 57 million driver identification numbers without encryption, had illegally collected about 12 million screenshots from users’ phones and had excessively collected personal data including millions of addresses, phone numbers and face images.

Data protection

The regulator also said Didi had failed to clearly notify users about analyses of their travel records.

The new rules are an update to regulations dating from 2018 and give the government more control over the data collected by Didi and other ride-hailing firms.

Under the new regulations such data cannot be used for commercial purposes, must be stored for at least two years in China compared to six months previously, and cannot be exported or shown to outside entities without regulatory authorisation.

The rules require companies to “periodically carry out security investigations, promptly rectify security risks and loopholes discovered, establish and complete a whole-process data security management system, and take necessary measures to prevent data from being tampered with, destroyed, leaked, or illegally acquired or illegally used”, according to one of the measures cited by Reuters.

Crackdown

The changes come as industry watchers anticipate Didi’s apps possibly returning to app stores and the company potentially being allowed to resume registrations of new users.

The probe forced the company to delist from the NYSE, and it is expected to hold a new listing in Hong Kong.

The tech crackdown has affected areas ranging from Bitcoin use and mining to children’s use of online games.