Using Food Delivery Apps? Your Personal Info Could be for Sale

By Cassandra Gu

Most of us would agree that food delivery in China is awesome, with its high efficiency and low cost: with a swipe of finger, you can have a meal delivered to your doorstep for RMB30 or less (depending what you order, obviously) in under 30 minutes.

But you know what is cheaper and faster to buy than, say, a bowl of Lanzhou noodles or a teriyaki chicken bento box? Your personal information.

A recent investigation reveals personal data from food delivery platforms, such as Ele.me and Baidu Waimai, are being sold for as little as RMB0.10 per person, according to Beijing News. Hackers from e-marketing groups use software to scrape data from order systems. Companies that run take-away shops and delivery drivers have also been found selling customer profiles, often to telephone sales companies who use these profiles for cold calling. Now you know why you are getting endless spam calls from real estate agents, insurance companies and shady credit firms.

In response to the incident, representatives from Meituan stated that the company has strict policies in place to protect users’ personal information, though possibilities could exist for third parties to exploit loopholes along their distribution chain.

The Beijing News reporter who broke the story posed as a buyer approaching data supplier on QQ’s chatting platform. For RMB400, 5,000 profiles, including names, genders, numbers and addresses, were compiled into an Excel spreadsheet and delivered within 15 minutes.

The sale of data is nothing new. The country is rife with marketplaces for illegally traded information, gleaned from personal devices or institution databases. Last month, an artist in Wuhan bought the data of 346,000 people and put it on display. In December 2017, Beijing police busted a group of hackers who collected over one million pieces of personal data by taking advantage of network operators’ vulnerabilities. In June of the same year, 22 people were arrested for allegedly stealing and selling iPhone user data.

Such is the paradox of digital age: We say that we want to protect our personal information. When given a choice, however, privacy often takes a backseat to services and experiences deemed more valuable. Our preference for convenience means we’ve created a matrix that could be used against us.

[Cover image via Jiameng]

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