(Yicai Global) Aug. 23 -- The cloud computing unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has been found guilty of breaching user data protection laws in November 2019, the 21st Business Herald reported exclusively today, citing the local watchdog, as the country gears up to bring in some of the world’s strictest data security laws next month.

The Zhejiang Communication Administration has confirmed that a screenshot of its response to a complainant last month that has been circulating on social media, in which Alibaba Cloud Computing was informed that it had broken the law by distributing personal information to a third-party partner without consent and was instructed to correct its practices, is authentic, the report said.

Such an act is in violation of Article 42 of the country’s cybersecurity law which says, "Network operators shall not leak, alter or destroy the personal information they collect. User data shall not be provided to others without the consent of the person whose information was collected," it said.

Alibaba Cloud has yet to respond.

Last month, Alibaba Cloud was sued by IP location data provider IPIP.net for software copyright infringement. The two later reached a settlement. Alibaba Cloud admitted that its staff had violated the company’s procedures during product development and said that the Hangzhou-based firm was firmly opposed to such actions.

China is preparing to introduce its first data security law, one of the toughest in the world, in September which will serve as the legal foundation for the national big data strategy and is expected in bring new development opportunities for the data security market.

Editor: Kim Taylor