A Chinese software developer trawled Alibaba’s popular Taobao shopping website for eight months, clandestinely collecting more than 1.1 billion pieces of user information, including phone numbers, before Alibaba noticed the scraping, a court verdict said
A Chinese software developer trawled Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ’s popular Taobao shopping website for eight months, clandestinely collecting more than 1.1 billion pieces of user information before Alibaba noticed the scraping, a Chinese court verdict said.
The software developer began using web-crawling software he designed on Taobao’s site starting in November 2019, gathering information including user IDs, mobile-phone numbers and customer comments, according to a verdict released this month by a district court in China’s central Henan province. When Alibaba noticed the data leaks from Taobao, one of China’s most-visited online retail sites, the company informed the police, the court said.
An Alibaba spokeswoman said the company proactively discovered and addressed the incident and was working with law enforcement to protect its users. She wouldn’t elaborate on how many people were affected. No user information was sold to a third party and no economic loss occurred, she said. About 925 million people use Alibaba’s Chinese retail platforms at least once a month, according to the company.
While the developer didn’t obtain encrypted information such as passwords, some of the data he scraped, including phone numbers and a portion of usernames, isn’t publicly presented on the website.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
French Nuclear Firm Confirms ‘Performance Issue’ At Chinese Plant After Report Of Possible LeakFrench company Framatome has reportedly warned of an “imminent radiological threat,” at a Chinese nuclear plant it part-owns, prompting an investigation by the U.S. government.
Read more »
Indian shares fall as Adani stocks weigh; CPI data eyedIndian shares on Monday retreated from record highs hit in the previous session, weighed down by Adani Group stocks, with investors awaiting consumer price inflation data (CPI) for May due later in the day.
Read more »
U.K. unemployment rate drops again, as British stocks open at highest level since February 2020The U.K. unemployment rate fell to 4.7% in the February to April period, government data showed, marking the fourth straight month of declines after the key...
Read more »
Exclusive: US assessing reported leak at Chinese nuclear power facilityThe US government has spent the past week assessing a report of a leak at a Chinese nuclear power plant, after a French company that part owns and helps operate it warned of an 'imminent radiological threat,' according to US officials and documents reviewed by CNN.
Read more »
Alibaba Pictures Losses Tumble During COVID YearChinese film and tech group, Alibaba Pictures managed to slash its losses during the COVID-affected financial year to March 2021. It pointed to strength and scale of its content as the differentiat…
Read more »
G-7 leaders double down on vaccine donationsLab leak theory attracts global interest — After approval of new Alzheimer’s drug, crickets from Congress
Read more »