[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Chinese authorities have fined electric vehicle manufacturer Xiaopeng 100,000 yuan (approximately 18.5 million KRW) for violating the Personal Information Protection Law, according to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 17th (local time). Authorities stated that Xiaopeng collected consumers' personal information without consent. This is the first time since the implementation of the Personal Information Protection Law last November that the law has been applied to an electric vehicle company.
Xiaopeng is accused of installing 22 facial recognition cameras in seven stores in Shanghai and capturing facial information of approximately 430,000 consumers who visited the stores from January to June this year without their consent.
After being fined, Xiaopeng issued a statement apologizing for capturing facial-related information without consumers' consent and announced that all related data had been deleted. Xiaopeng explained that the collection and analysis of consumers' facial information were intended to improve customer service.
Xiaopeng is one of China's three major electric vehicle startups and was also listed on the New York Stock Exchange at the end of last year.
Since last November, China has been enforcing the Personal Information Protection Law, which strictly regulates the collection, use, and management of personal information. The law principally prohibits the collection or use of personal information without individual consent.
In particular, if technology companies violate these regulations by collecting or using personal information, they may face fines of up to 50 million yuan (approximately 8.4 billion KRW) or up to 5% of the company's annual revenue.
China has also strengthened regulations on personal information collection and use by enforcing the Data Security Law since September. The Data Security Law includes strong penalties for the distribution of hidden camera programs, illegal filming videos, and crude cameras on platforms of social media companies or e-commerce companies.
Chinese authorities have been imposing various regulations on major technology companies, starting with the refusal of Ant Group's initial public offering (IPO) on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges in November last year.
Ant Group, a fintech company led by Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, planned to simultaneously list on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges in early November last year, raising a record amount of approximately 34 billion USD, but the IPO was canceled due to sudden intervention by Chinese authorities.
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