14 DAY TRIAL // A former employee of Alipay – Alibaba Group’s payment branch, which accounts for 61% of China’s third-party payment market – has been arrested for selling customer information.
According to the Shanghai Daily, the suspect is said to have stolen up to 20 Gb of customer information since 2010. He sold it to other companies, mostly e-commerce organizations, with the aid of two accomplices who have also been detained.
China Daily Asia reports that Alipay has issued a statement in which it apologizes to customers for the leak of personal information. The data sold by the former employee includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses and purchase records.
Alipay representatives have highlighted the fact that passwords and financial information has not been compromised since it’s heavily encrypted.
The company says it is taking steps to insure that such incidents don’t happen in the future.