(Yicai Global) Feb. 8 -- A Beijing court has ruled that Maimai, China’s version of LinkedIn, was guilty of an invasion of privacy for text messaging someone who was not registered on the site in the name of his friends.

The Haidian district court ordered the Beijing-based career and social-networking platform to delete the personal data of unregistered users and issue a public apology.

Maimai sent a text message in 2018 to an individual named Wang Miao, who was not registered with the platform, saying that he had been marked by a former colleague and that several friends were waiting for him to join, according to case information the court released yesterday.

Wang charged that Maimai illegally obtained and keep his personal data, including mobile phone number, information about his friends and professional history, and sent commercial information to him without consent, violating his privacy.

Taoyou Tianxia Technology Development, which runs the platform, argued that it did not illegally obtain the plaintiff’s personal data. His mobile phone number was uploaded by friends, and the message was triggered by registered users, meaning there was no subjective intention of infringement. The actions involved in the case did not harm the plaintiff or violate his interests, it said.

In the end, the court held that the defendant obtained Wang’s phone number through information uploaded by registered users. It calculated and evaluated the relationship network of the plaintiff through the number’s user profile, and sent a recommendation with Wang’s name and those of his friends without his consent. This intruded on his private life and constituted an infringement of privacy, the court ruled.

Set up in October 2013, Maimai announced the completion of a USD200 million Series D fundraiser in April 2018. The platform’s real-name registered users exceeded 110 million as of last June, it said.

Editor: Peter Thomas