BEIJING: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has come under fire over its handling of user data in an episode that underscores growing concerns for privacy in the hyper-digitized country.
Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial was forced to apologize on Wednesday after users said they felt misled into allowing its Alipay service to share data on their spending habits with its credit-scoring arm and other third-party services.
Controlled by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, Ant Financial provides mobile payment, lending, and credit services to millions of Chinese consumers, and the controversy has featured prominently in China’s state-controlled media this week.
Consumers have come to expect a lack of privacy in a country where the government collects a file of personal data on each person including financial, education and other information, and where video surveillance is widespread.
But many Chinese Internet users reacted with unusual outrage to learn that Alipay, which is used by millions daily to make mobile and online purchases on Alibaba’s Taobao platform and elsewhere, had automatically checked a box and hidden language showing they agreed to share their data.
“It’s just like Taobao profiting from selling our information, there’s no way to refuse!” one user of China’s Twitter-like Weibo service complained.
The sale of personal information is common in China, which last year implemented a controversial cybersecurity law that among other things requires services to store user data in China and receive approval from users before sharing their details.
“Because lots of information is already out there, everyone thinks there is no way to protect our personal information,” said Yue Shenshan, the lawyer whose online posts helped highlight the Ant Financial issue.
“But if we don’t focus on protecting our private information right now, the situation will only worsen.”
Ant Financial embedded the new policy in a page Alipay users see when they click through to see their 2017 spending activity.
Screenshots of the activity are frequently freely shared on social media by users who boast either about their purchasing power — or frugality.
“So angry” wrote one executive at a Beijing Internet company who this week posted a screenshot of his 9.6 million yuan ($1.48 million) Alipay tab for the year.
Ant Financial said in a statement that it has since changed the opt-in policy and showed users how to change their settings.
“We are deeply sorry to everyone for the misunderstanding and panic this incident caused,” it said.
Privacy is a particularly high-profile issue now as the Chinese government is in the process of developing a national “social credit” scoring system that may rate people on everything from their credit-worthiness to their loyalty to the Communist Party.
Alibaba’s credit-scoring unit Sesame Credit may someday feed data into that system.
The Alipay controversy arose just as regulators in Washington this week rejected Ant Financial’s proposed acquisition of US-based MoneyGram after concerns were raised over the security of American customers’ data.
China’s Alibaba under fire over use of customer data
China’s Alibaba under fire over use of customer data
Emerging markets should depend less on external funding, says Nigeria finance minister
RIYADH: Developing economies must rely less on external financing as high global interest rates and geopolitical tensions continue to strain public finances, Nigeria’s finance minister told Al-Eqtisadiah.
Asked how Nigeria is responding to rising global interest rates and conflicts between major powers such as the US and China, Wale Edun said that current conditions require developing countries to rethink traditional financing models.
“I think what it means for countries like Nigeria, other African countries, and even other developing countries is that we have to rely less on others and more on our own resources, on our own devices,” he said on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies.
He added: “We have to trade more with each other, we have to cooperate and invest in each other.”
Edun emphasized the importance of mobilizing domestic resources, particularly savings, to support investment and long-term economic development.
According to Edun, rising debt servicing costs are placing an increasing burden on developing economies, limiting their ability to fund growth and social programs.
“In an environment where developing countries as a whole — what we are paying in debt service, what we are paying in terms of interest costs and repayments of our debt — is more than we are receiving in what we call overseas development assistance, and it is more than even investments by wealthy countries in our economies,” he said.
Edun added that countries in the Global South are increasingly recognizing the need for deeper regional integration.
His comments reflect growing concern among developing nations that elevated borrowing costs and global instability are reshaping development finance, accelerating a shift toward domestic resource mobilization and stronger economic ties among emerging markets.
