China widens probe beyond Didi to exert control over online data

Didi undoubtedly has the most detailed travel information on individuals among large Internet firms and appears to have the ability to conduct “big data analysis” of individual behaviours and habits, the Global Times wrote. To protect personal data as well as national security, China must be even stricter in its oversight of Didi’s data security, given that it’s listed in the US and its two largest shareholders are foreign companies, the newspaper added. — Reuters

China expanded a cybersecurity probe beyond Didi Global Inc to include two other recent US debutantes, moving with surprising swiftness to tighten its control over Internet data in the interests of national security.

Beijing’s latest effort to rein in its top online companies unfolded swiftly over the weekend. Late on Friday, the top Internet regulator said it was starting a cybersecurity review of the ride-hailing giant and later ordered app stores to remove its services from their platforms, dealing a major blow to the company just days after it pulled off one of the largest US IPOs of the past decade. The Communist Party-backed Global Times warned in a Monday column that Didi’s information hoard posed a threat to individual privacy as well as national security, particularly since its top two shareholders – SoftBank Group Corp and Uber Technologies Inc – were foreign.