Tech companies slammed in China’s annual consumer day gala for personal data breach
Date:2019-3-16 10:48:14 Clicks:721 【Font Size:
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A raft of Chinese tech companies are accused of widely breaching users' personal data and making harassing sales calls with Artificial Intelligent (AI) technology and certain devices, China Central Television's (CCTV) annual consumer rights show revealed on Friday.
The show which have named brands like Apple and Nike Inc in the past, focused on eight consumption areas such as toys and bags made from medical waste, the health risks of smoking e-cigarettes, and consumer privacy issues.
ZK-Link, a Shenzhen based tech company, was accused of selling automated phone lines that can make roughly 5,000 calls per day to telemarketing companies at the price of 3,000 yuan ($447) per set.
ZK-Link's clients have exceeded 8,000 companies, most of which are telephone marketing companies in real estate, auto, finance, plastic surgery, and education industries.
Another tech company "Egosai" showed that the replicated voice in the call is almost indistinguishable from that of a human.
To avoid regulations, the companies even provided special methods to hide real phone numbers, which means no evidence is left on the users' phone.
Shenzhen based financial technology firm Samoyed Holding, which filed for a US initial public offering last year, was reported collecting personal information without consumers' knowledge by installing probe boxes in many public places like convenience stores and a shopping mall.
More than 30 million of the devices are installed at public places across China by companies like Samoyed Holding to collect people's personal information around the clock, an insider said during the report.
Besides people's mobile phone numbers, the probe boxes can even get specific private information including gender, age, online activity, and levels of education.
The breaches have mainly obtained data from mobile phone apps. Data can be leaked when users agree to user service policies, fill out their information while registering an account or when the app is allowed to access the address book, text messages, and other personal information.
"Our company has personal information of 600 million people," a manager surnamed Li said during the show.
The timely exposure of personal data breaching problems shows that the country is strengthening its protection of private information, analysts said. And certain investigations have been launched after the exposure.
After being exposed by the gala, Samoyed responded that an emergency meeting has been held, a special investigation team has been set up, and the problems mentioned in the program are being thoroughly investigated. And the apps that were accused of breaching users privacy are also being put offline.
A manager with Soundtooth, a Shenzhen based probe box manufacturer, said on the show that if the device is exposed by the annual consumer day gala, then the investigation kicks in, but if it's not exposed, it could still be used for as long as a year.