Police bust group for stealing and selling online livestreamers' personal data

Ti Gong

Shanghai police have cracked down two gangs for allegedly stealing private information and incentive money online, police said on Thursday.

Beginning in late July, police officers in suburban Minhang District received dozens of reports from anchors and users of some popular livestreaming platforms that their personal data was stolen and sold online.

Specifically, detailed information, such as users' reward amounts and users' personal information from popular anchors' livestream rooms, were all leaked in the case.

After investigation, police found a website was illegally selling the stolen data for 360 yuan (US$50.44) per anchor per month. The information of top-ranking users with the highest reward totals every month in a livestreaming room were sold at 240 yuan per user per month.

The gang consists of 24 members, all of whom have been detained now, and the case is under further investigation, police said.

Another gang with three suspects was found using an online platform's background management system to steal the platform's incentive money, which is designed for rewarding users' promotion.

The three are all former employees of the platform operator, and all have been apprehended by Minhang police as well.