China’s leading ride-hailing platform Didi has launched audio and video recording functions on its online ride-hailing service across over 10 cities.This movehas sparked heated online discussion on the dilemma of whether the surveillance measure will help boost the safety of passengers or it could infringe personal privacy.As of noon on November 20, the online survey launched by Didi over its platform on whether the interior space of the online ride-hailing vehicle is private or public has attracted over 310,000 respondents, with more than 220,000 people voting in favor of public space.As for installing recording equipment in online ride-hailing vehicles, more than 36,000 of the participants chose to back up the idea, while over 24,000 feel that audio and visual recordings might be an invasion of privacy.As China’s largest mobile ride-hailing platform, Didi offers a wide range of app-based transportation options for 550 million users worldwide, with about 30 million rides each day.However, the murder of a young female passenger by her Didi driver August in east China’s Wenzhou city, the second such case in about three months, raised public concerns over the platform's capability to ensure safety.The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Public Security and nationwide authorities ordered Didi to rectify operation patterns so as to ensure the safety of its services and legitimate rights and interests of passengers.

Source: Chinadaily