APP infringement continues despite repeated bans? The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology strikes hard again

In this era of advanced Internet, there are endless various APPs, which bring certain risks to people's lives while providing convenience to people. The reason is that many APPs have begun to infringe on the rights of users in order to satisfy their own interests. In this regard, relevant national departments attach great importance to it. In recent years, they have been increasing supervision, urging them to make rectifications, and giving corresponding penalties.

On May 13, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on the Removal of the List of Apps that Infringe User Rights" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). The "Notice" pointed out that 90 apps failed to complete the rectification as required, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will remove these 90 apps. It is reported that these 90 apps involve many fields such as education, games, security, and news across the country.

The Notice stated that on April 23, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced to the public a list of 93 APP companies that infringed on user rights. So far, after verification and re-inspection by a third-party testing agency, 39 APPs have not completed rectification in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. At the same time, local communications administration bureaus actively carried out supervision and inspection of mobile phone application software in accordance with the deployment of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's APP rectification action. This time, the communications administration bureaus of Inner Mongolia, Anhui, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Zhejiang found that a total of 46 APPs had not yet completed rectification.

It is worth noting that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology particularly emphasized that in recent inspections, it was found that five companies, including Tianya Community, Damai, Tuniu Travel, VIP Pei Lian, and Maimai, had repeatedly encountered similar problems in different versions of the App. Our department will suspend their illegal activities in accordance with the law and directly remove them from the shelves.

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APP infringement continues despite repeated bans

In recent years, the emergence of various APPs has made the work and life of consumers more convenient, but at the same time, some APPs have excessively collected user personal information, and privacy clauses are incomplete or seriously missing, which has become one of the biggest concerns of consumers. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also carried out multiple rounds of rectification and introduced a number of measures in response to this.

Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a special rectification campaign against apps that infringe on user rights in November 2019, it has carried out 11 batches of special rectifications, inspected mobile phone applications, and urged companies with problems to make rectifications.

However, some APPs still do not repent.

On April 23, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the fourth batch of APPs that infringe on user rights in 2021. It is reported that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently organized a third-party testing agency to inspect mobile phone application software, focusing on urging companies with problems in games and tools to make rectifications. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that there are still 93 APPs that have not completed rectification.

In this regard, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology requires the above-mentioned APPs to complete the rectification and implementation work before April 29. If the rectification is not completed within the deadline, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will organize relevant disposal work in accordance with laws and regulations.

Now, the relevant APPs have not completed the corresponding rectification work within the specified time, and have also received penalties for their violations.

In accordance with the requirements of laws and normative documents such as the "Cybersecurity Law", the "Regulations on the Protection of Personal Information of Telecommunications and Internet Users" (MIIT Order No. 24) and the "Interim Provisions on the Pre-installation and Distribution Management of Mobile Smart Terminal Application Software" (MIIT Information Management [2016] No. 407), the MIIT organized the removal of the above 90 APPs.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology requires that relevant app stores should immediately organize the removal of application software on the list after the release of the "Notice", and strengthen learning from past mistakes, carefully and systematically investigate companies that have repeatedly had problems, strictly implement corporate principal responsibilities, and strictly control the review of listings.

Intensify APP rectification efforts

Although there are still cases of APP infringement, this phenomenon has been significantly improved under the management and rectification of relevant departments.

Since the implementation of the "Mobile Internet Application Information Service Management Regulations" on August 1, 2016, the national and local Cyberspace Administration of China have been responsible for the supervision, management and law enforcement of APP information content in accordance with the law; relevant departments such as market supervision departments, public security departments, copyright departments, etc. also manage APPs in accordance with the law based on their respective powers.

In addition, three months ago, in order to better protect user privacy from being stolen by APPs without authorization, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also began drafting the "Interim Provisions on the Management of Personal Information Protection of Mobile Internet Applications" (hereinafter referred to as the "Interim Provisions"), which clarified the two basic principles of personal information protection: informed consent and minimum necessity, and set a clear bottom line and drew a red line for App personal information protection.

It is reported that the "Interim Provisions" clarify the two basic principles of personal information protection: informed consent and minimum necessity. The principle of informed consent requires that those engaged in App personal information processing activities should inform users of personal information processing rules in clear and understandable language, and users should make voluntary and clear expressions of intent with full support.

On April 20, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Zhao Zhiguo, spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and director of the Information and Communications Administration, said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has continued to carry out special rectification. Since the beginning of this year, it has completed technical inspections of 290,000 apps, put forward rectification requirements for 1,862 illegal apps, publicly reported 319 apps that had not been rectified, and organized the removal of 107 apps that refused to rectify.

In response to the current major problems such as APPs collecting personal information in violation of regulations and excessive requests for permissions, Zhao Zhiguo said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will work with relevant departments to issue the "Interim Provisions on APP Personal Information Protection Management" and organize the formulation of a series of industry standards such as the "APP User Rights Protection Evaluation Specifications" and "APP Collection and Use of Personal Information Minimum Necessary Assessment Specifications" to provide policy and standard support for APP personal information protection supervision.

At the same time, we will strengthen the supervision of the key responsibility chain. We will focus on the key and important link of the app store, urge the app store to fulfill its platform responsibilities, strengthen the APP listing review mechanism, and effectively serve as the "gatekeeper" of personal information protection. We will establish an app store compliance operation monitoring mechanism, include the subjects of illegal behavior in the list of bad telecommunications business operations, organize app stores to carry out testing standard training, and promote the formation of a unified technical testing system for app stores.

Of course, in addition to policy protection, as users we should enhance our awareness of network security prevention, develop good habits of safe Internet access, use apps selectively and authorize them selectively when using them, and dare to speak out when our interests are infringed.