National Crackdown on Online Spying Sees Dozens Nabbed

A national crackdown on illegal surveillance has resulted in more than 25,000 illegal webcams access permissions being tracked down. Photo: VCG

A national crackdown on illegal surveillance led by departments including the cyberspace watchdog and police has resulted in dozens nabbed and more than 25,000 illegal webcams access permissions being tracked down.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a notice (link in Chinese) Monday that the three-month campaign aimed at activities including the illegal use of cameras to spy on people, the trading of such private videos and the passing on of spying techniques.

The CAC ordered its local counterparts to purge harmful information related to surveillance from a variety of content platforms, with those operated by internet majors Baidu Inc., Tencent and Alibaba coming in for particular scrutiny. It said that this led to more than 8,000 pieces of harmful information being removed and 134 accounts being punished.

On e-commerce sites such as JD.com Inc., Alibaba’s Taobao and its second-hand platform Xianyu, CAC officials ordered the removal of more than 1,600 pieces of camera equipment, deleted more than 12,000 pieces of illegal information and punished more than 3,700 accounts.

Officials also identified and held talks with 14 video surveillance app vendors.

The cyberspace watchdog said it had been working along with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security and State Administration of Market Regulation on the campaign since May.

The Ministry of Public Security organized a clampdown on camera hacking, as well as the manufacturing and selling of eavesdropping equipment and easily concealable cameras.

A total of 59 people have been nabbed and more than 25,000 illegal webcam access permissions were tracked down, the notice said. More than 1,500 sets of listening devices and camera equipment were also confiscated.

The announcement is part of a widening regulatory campaign from the government to rein in China’s tech giants, targeting areas from antitrust to data security.

A similar action by the CAC saw tech companies including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. fined last month for not removing explicit content involving children.

Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)

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