China's top flight-tracking app's social functions trigger controversy over privacy
A Chinese flight-tracker app's new social features came under fire on Tuesday after users criticized it for violating user privacy, highlighting increasing sensitivity toward the use of private data in China.
On Monday night a WeChat blog article titled "Umetrip is right now giving your private data to strangers!" made the rounds on the Chinese internet. The lead of the article made a veiled reference to a recent murder, where a taxi-driver on China's ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing killed a young female passenger.
The article criticized Umetrip, a popular app that offers flight information for airline passengers, for recently added social features. A feature called "virtual cabin" allows users to click on every seat on an airplane to see who is sitting there. Users can access a personal profile of all passengers, showing maps of their frequently visited cities. The app also allows the user to send private messages to other passengers.
The article claimed the features could not be disabled, which sparked criticism by many users. "It's a little creepy, to be honest," a 30-something woman told the Global Times.
"I don't want strangers on a plane to know anything personal about me," she said.
Umetrip responded with a public statement on WeChat, noting that the new social features are on trial on only a few routes and the app does give the option to disable the features.
Umetrip later issued a public apology on Weibo on Tuesday afternoon. The app's default settings now block others from seeing user profiles, although private messages are allowed by default.
Experts said that smartphone social features have gone too far in some areas.
"Adding social features to Umetrip was a misguided decision," Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research told the Global Times on Tuesday. "Umetrip users tend to be highly educated, higher-income passengers, and these are precisely the sort of people who are more sensitive about their privacy," said Zhang.
