China Orders 25 Tech Giants To Fix Raft of Problems

China ordered more than two dozen technology firms to carry out internal inspections as part of a campaign to root out illegal online activity. From a report: The Ministry of Industry Information Technology on Friday told 25 of its largest internet and hardware companies including Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings to carry out internal reviews and rectify issues ranging from data security to consumer rights protections. The twin giants and 10 other firms were also asked separately on Wednesday to step up data security protections, including the export of key information, by the Internet Society of China, which was acting on behalf of MIIT.

The meetings this week come after the internet industry regulator announced on Monday it was beginning a six-month campaign to crackdown on illegal online activity. Days later, it told Tencent and 13 other corporations to address problems related to pop-ups within their ads. The crackdown is the latest move by Beijing to rein in the country's internet leaders in areas from antitrust to data security and ride-hailing. Meituan, Xiaomi and ByteDance were among firms summoned to both meetings. On Friday, the MIIT ordered the companies to address eight types of problematic behavior including pop-ups, data collection and storage as well as the blocking of external links.

Illegal Activity Like...

[cygnusvis]

Saying you don't like communism.

Oh bother ...

[RitchCraft]

It would seem that if you live in the 100 Acre Wood you need to play by its rules.

Re:

[spikenerd]

...or change the rules. Even Pooh Bears can be replaced.

Something doesn't seem right here

[phantomfive]

data security protections, including the export of key information,

What sort of data exports are they talking about here?

Re:

[ChunderDownunder]

Analytics? Integrating mundane functionality that allows tech firms outside China to track them.

Supposing for a moment that this isn't paranoid overreach from Big Brother in Beijing, freedom from surreptitious monetization by foreign corporations.

Don't most Slashdot users ad-block while complaining about telemetry?

I'm a tad confused

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

From the summary... "rectify issues ranging from data security to consumer rights protections..." consumer rights protections? This from a country where 86% of all knock-offs come from? (source: https://daxueconsulting.com/co... [daxueconsulting.com]) Is the summary using words in a way I"m not familiar with?

Ministry of Industry

[Anonymous Crowded]

I call dibs on the name for my skaa/devo tribute band!

If only western govts...

[VeryFluffyBunny]

...had the (ahem) "confidence" to order big tech companies to pull their acts together regarding data security & personal privacy. That's what we're usually complaining about & demanding from our govts on /., right? Instead, we have executives that pay themselves huge bonuses & their share price goes up right after massive (what we'd think would be catastrophic) security breaches & data leaks.

Sounds like they are preparing for cyberwar

[rapjr]

by training people to expect consistency from UI's rather than strange popups so people know what to expect and notice when things are off. Which seems like a good idea. They will benefit from more data security also. Since they can just order these changes top down it will happen quickly, unlike in the USA where each company currently has to be individually persuaded.