TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Grab, a Singapore-based technology company, is seeking to calm data security concerns in Taiwan as regulators review its planned purchase of Foodpanda’s Taiwan business, Nikkei Asia reported Monday.
The ride-hailing and delivery firm said on May 20 that some public claims about its technology partners and ownership structure were misleading or false. The statement came after questions grew in Taiwan over whether Grab’s mapping and cloud service arrangements could affect user data security.
The concerns center on Grab Maps, the company’s mapping service used in Southeast Asia. Labor groups and local media reports have questioned Grab Maps’ cooperation with Petal Maps, a mapping service linked to Chinese tech company Huawei.
The Taichung City Food Delivery Platform Service Industry Union said Grab’s mapping partnership and cloud service arrangements raised concerns about possible data security risks for Taiwan users. Su Po-hao (蘇柏豪), spokesperson for the Food Delivery Rights Promotion Alliance, said delivery workers were worried about being drawn into possible national security risks.
Grab said its partnership with Petal Maps does not include Taiwan and will not be expanded to Taiwan. The company said the cooperation is limited to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
Grab also said all app data is stored in secure data centers outside China. It said its main data storage is in Singapore and that it uses cloud service providers including Amazon Web Services.
The company said it limits access to user data and regularly checks how data is handled. It said only approved staff can access relevant data under company security rules.
The case has added to wider concerns in Taiwan over digital services with possible links to China. On April 23, the Ministry of Digital Affairs listed Chinese navigation app Gaode Maps as a product that could endanger national information and communication security.
Grab announced in March that it would buy Foodpanda’s Taiwan business from Germany’s Delivery Hero for US$600 million (NT$18.85 billion) in cash. The deal would be Grab’s first expansion outside Southeast Asia.
The acquisition still needs approval from Taiwan regulators. Grab Chief Financial Officer Peter Oey told Nikkei Asia in May that the review was still ongoing and that the company hoped to close the deal in the second half of the year.
