DingTalk (钉钉)

Is DingTalk safe?

DingTalk is safe from hackers by most measures, but it is not private from your employer. The app holds Chinese and international security certificates and we found no reported breach. The catch is that it is built around the organisation. Your employer decides how you clock in, which can mean a face scan or your GPS position, and owns everything you create in a work account. The Chinese app also keeps data in mainland China. We score it 54/100, below Microsoft Teams (64) and Slack (65).

This page scores 钉钉, Alibaba's work app for the Chinese market, sold as DingDing in some app stores. The international version, DingTalk, has a separate operator and policy, covered below.

What DingTalk tells your employer

Attendance is where DingTalk differs most from Western work apps. The September 2026 privacy policy says that if your organisation chooses face check-in, you must provide a face photo to create a template. If it chooses location check-in, DingTalk collects your GPS position or Wi-Fi access point, plus motion sensor data, to confirm you are at work. "Fast check-in" goes further: within the set time window, the app reads your Wi-Fi network and location each time you open it from the background.

To stop cheating, DingTalk checks your phone for known cheating apps, for automation tools that launch DingTalk and for developer mode, and records touch events when you tap the check-in button. The policy says it does not pass that device data to your employer, but the employer can see whether you are "suspected of cheating". An organisation that pays for DingTalk's security service also gets logs of your logins, IP address and which workplace apps you open.

Ownership follows the same logic. Everything you create, upload or send while using DingTalk as a member of an organisation is controlled by that organisation. With the paid security service, your one-to-one chats with colleagues disappear from your view when you leave. None of this is hidden; it is the product. But it means the employee's privacy depends on the employer's settings, not on yours.

Where the data goes

Apple's label for the app says usage data may be used to track you across other companies' apps, and that contact details, search history, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics are linked to you. The app also carries ads and personalised recommendations, which you can switch off separately in the privacy settings.

The Chinese policy stores data collected in China in China. It names one deliberate exception: when you talk to someone on the international DingTalk app, your profile and the conversation can be accessed by that person and their service. Chinese law gives authorities broad access to data held in the country, which matters more for a work app full of contracts, plans and staff records than for a game.

On the positive side, DingTalk says its main systems passed China's level 3 security assessment (MLPS) and hold ISO 27001, ISO 27018 and ISO 27701 certificates. It also says meeting content is not used to train AI models without your separate consent. We found no app vulnerability listed in the US National Vulnerability Database and no reported breach. The policy describes SSL in transit, not end-to-end encryptionEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary.

The international DingTalk app

Outside China, Apple lists a separate app called DingTalk from DingTalk Singapore Private Limited. Its March 2026 policy, from DingTalk (Singapore) Private Limited and DingTalk Limited, says its servers are in Singapore and that it takes part in the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules system. Its Apple label uses identifiers, not usage data, to track you. For a data export, the policy tells you to email its privacy team. We do not score it separately here.

Regulators and bans

India's IT ministry blocked DingTalk on 24 November 2020, together with Taobao Live, AliExpress and 40 other apps, under Section 69A of the IT Act. The ministry cited reports from its cybercrime centre and threats to sovereignty, defence, security and public order. Unlike the June 2020 order, which said apps sent users' data abroad, it gave no reason tied to how DingTalk handles data, so we treat it as context rather than a finding. It still matters in practice, because the order blocked access to DingTalk for users in India.

At home, DingTalk has a cleaner record than most large Chinese apps. It was not among the 33 apps named in the cyberspace regulator's May 2021 notice on unlawful data collection, which included map apps such as Amap, and we found no ministry order naming it. That gives it a regulatory record of 85, far above the 42 we give WeChat for the same factor, though no regulator has published a review of DingTalk itself.

How to use DingTalk with less exposure

1. Use a separate account for each job, and keep personal chats and files off work accounts.
2. Set location permission to "While Using the App"; the App Store listing says DingTalk may use location even when closed.
3. Turn off personalised recommendations and programmatic ads under My, Settings and privacy.
4. Before you leave a job, download your own data under My, Settings and privacy, Personal information query and download.
5. Outside China, install the international DingTalk app unless your employer requires the Chinese one.

How we scored it

The regulatory record (85) is the highest factor, with no fine or order naming DingTalk; India's 2020 block takes only a few points because it cited sovereignty, not data handling. Privacy (38) is the lowest: employer-controlled location and face check-ins, cheating scans and storage in mainland China. Security (58) gains from certifications and a clean breach record but lacks end-to-end encryptionEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary, and scams and harmful content (64) stays fairly high because most contact is with colleagues and classmates.