Baidu denies data breach from executive's daughter leak

Baidu, a major Chinese cloud provider, has denied claims of a data breach. This comes after a controversy linked to the daughter of Xie Guangjun, a vice president at the company. The teenager allegedly posted personal information, including phone numbers, of other users during an online argument. In response, Baidu stated that its employees cannot access user data. They clarified that the information shared by the teenager came from illegal "doxing databases" available on foreign platforms. Baidu has also reported the spread of false information to the police. This included claims suggesting that Xie had given his daughter access to Baidu's databases. Xie apologized for his daughter's actions and explained that she found the personal information on overseas social media sites. The incident has drawn significant attention, and Baidu's shares fell more than 4% in Hong Kong trading. China has recently strengthened its data protection laws to combat the rise of online data sellers who deal in personal information, including sensitive details like birth dates and property ownership.