China scolds Alipay operator over breach of users’ privacy
China’s cyber watchdog has scolded Ant Financial, Alibaba’s payment affiliate, for compromising user privacy after many users of its Alipay service were automatically enrolled in its credit scoring system.
The Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement it had summoned Ant Financial representatives to a meeting last Saturday and told them they had failed to meet the country’s personal information security standards.
The rap over the knuckles adds to a tough start to the year for Ant Financial, which was recently blocked by US regulators from acquiring MoneyGram International.
It is also grappling with new regulations, requiring mobile payment firms to sharply increase the amount of client funds in interest-free reserve accounts, which is likely to reduce profits.
Alipay has a popular end-of-year feature that allows its customers to analyse how they have spent their money over the year. At the end of 2017, the feature began enrolling users who wanted to look at their bills into the credit scoring system, Sesame Credit.
