According to Reuters, the Cyberspace Administration of China has directed app stores that Didi Chuxings had been illegally collecting personal data from users. Although the regulator stated that it had given the company an order to update the app to ensure it was in compliance with China's data protection laws, it did not elaborate on the specific violations.Didi was established in China in 2012. A recent regulatory filing indicates that it has 377,000,000 active users in China. Just recently, Didi went public. This is the largest IPO by a Chinese company to be listed on US stock exchanges since Alibaba. The CAC announced Friday that new user registrations for Didis were being suspended while cybersecurity reviews are completed.Responding to a request to comment, Didi spokespeople pointed to a Sunday post from its Weibo site (translated via Google Translate from Chinese) in which it stated that its app would be deleted according to the order and that users who had downloaded the Didi app could continue to use it as normal.The Wall Street Journal reported that China's regulators have been crackingdown on tech companies over the past few weeks for a variety of violations. They are focusing on anti-competitive practices and inconsistent pricing as well as the way apps handle user data.
