ikTok, Shein, Xiaomi, and three more Chinese companies were mentioned in a privacy complaint that was filed on Thursday by Noyb, an Austrian advocacy
group. Noyb came up with allegations stating that the companies were unlawfully sending data from the EU to China.
Even more so, Noyb is well-known for filing complaints against American companies such as Apple, Meta, and Alphabet, leading to some investigations that led to billions of dollars in fines.
The advocacy group was created in Vienna, stating that was the first time they had completed a complaint against Chinese firms. Noybo has already filled six complaints in countries such as Greece, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and Italy. Those complaints were looking forward to support in order to have data transferred suspended to China, and they were also looking for fines that could even reach up to 4% of the firm’s global revenue.
The advocacy firm said that Alibaba’s e-commerce platform AliExpress, the online retailer Shein, TikTok, and the phone maker Xiaomi admit that they have been sending out data from Europe to China. This information was gathered from transparency reports and documents, yet Temu and WeChat send theri data to unknown “third countries” such as China.
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This Friday, the minister of foreign said that the government “has never and will never” ask enterprises to collect data from users, nor to provide data information and intelligence that is located in other countries. Even more so, Guo Jiakun, the ministry spokesperson, said that China attaches great importance to and protects data privacy and security in accordance with the law.
Even more so, one of Xiaomi’s spokespersons said that the company was looking into the allegations and would also cooperate with authorities in order to resolve the matter in the case where theory approached the company due to their complaint.
Under GDPR, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation privacy regime, data transfers that happen outside the EU are not allowed to happen. Kleanthi Sareli, one of the protection lawyers from Noyb said Given that China is an authoritarian surveillance state, it is crystal clear that China doesn't offer the same level of data protection as the EU,” and “Transferring Europeans’ personal data is clearly unlawful – and must be terminated immediately”.
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