Chinese ride-sharing operator DiDi fined $1.2 billion in China for illegal data collection

DiDi, the world’s largest ride-sharing operator and a Chinese-owned company, has received one of the largest fines China has ever imposed on a company. DiDi will have to pay 8.026 billion yuan, equivalent to US$1.2 billion for 64 billion violations of the country’s data collection laws.

DiDi has been the target of several investigations and restrictions from China over the past few years, particularly over how customer data is collected and processed. The list of violations of data privacy laws is long and appears to have come about as a result of investigations in recent years, including the inability to sign up new accounts for customers in China in the past.

Here’s the list of customer rights violations for which DiDi must pay $1.2 billion

• 53.976 billion pieces of information indicating travelers’ intentions were analyzed without their knowledge
• 8.323 billion pieces of information were accessed from customer clipboards and application lists
• 1.538 billion pieces of information about the cities where users live were analyzed without their permission
• 304 million pieces of information describing where customers work
• 167 million user locations were collected and evaluated by the DiDi app while running in the background
• 153 million pieces of information revealing drivers’ home and work addresses
• 107 million passenger facial recognition information
• 57.8 million driver’s license information stored in text format
• 53.5092 million customer age information
• 16.3356 million pieces of information describing the occupation of customers
• 11.96 million screenshots were downloaded from customers’ phones
• 1.3829 million pieces of information describing customers’ family relationships
• 149,900 pieces of information describing driver education

The $1.2 billion fine represents about 4.7% of DiDi’s annual revenue, close to China’s 5% legal maximum.