Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client News on May 26th, on the 25th, the APP Special Governance Working Group released the “Special Governance Report on the Collection and Use of Personal Information by the APP (2019)” (hereinafter referred to as “Report”), March 2019 Since the assessment, there have been 6,976 problems in collecting and using personal information in violation of laws and regulations, notified the operators of 256 APPs, and urged them to complete the rectification of 1,267 key issues. It is recommended that the relevant regulatory authorities remove the 11 non-implemented rectification requirements. .


Thousands of APPs undergo rectification after in-depth evaluation

The “Report” shows that at present, China has fully entered the era of mobile Internet, with nearly 900 million The proportion of netizens who use mobile phones to access the Internet is as high as 99.1%. The characteristics of mobile Internet services that are convenient, instant, and inclusive are fully reflected in mobile Internet applications (APPs). According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 4 million APPs on the mobile Internet application store and the total number of downloads exceeds one trillion. Users spend an average of 4.9 hours on various apps every day, accounting for 81.7% of users’ average daily online time. The extensive application of APP plays an irreplaceable role in promoting economic and social development and serving people’s livelihood. However, at the same time, the phenomenon of compulsory authorization, excessive claims, and excessive collection of personal information by APPs are common. Non-standard behaviors such as not formulating and disclosing privacy policies, collecting personal information without user consent, and not providing account cancellation functions are common. Information leakage and misuse have occurred from time to time, and the majority of netizens have expressed strong reactions to this.

The APP special governance working group pointed out that in January 2019, the four departments of the Central Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the General Administration of Market Supervision jointly released the “About Announcement on the Implementation of the Special Administration for the Collection and Use of Personal Information for APP Illegal and Violent Regulations, organized a nationwide special management for the collection and use of personal information for APP illegal and irregular regulations, and established a special governance group for the collection and use of personal information for APP illegal and illegal activities. Over the past year, the special governance work has achieved remarkable results. Standards such as the “Approval Method for Collecting and Using Personal Information by APPs” and “Personal Information Security Standards” and other standards have been introduced and perfected. The user scale is large, the relationship with life is close, and the problems reflect the concentration of more than a thousand After in-depth evaluation, the APP has been effectively rectified. Problems such as no privacy policy, compulsory claim rights, and no cancellation channels have been significantly improved. The ability and level of APP operators to fulfill their personal information protection obligations have been significantly improved, and the entire society has paid attention to and paid attention to personal information security. The atmosphere is basically formed.


Source: “Special Governance Report on the Collection and Use of Personal Information by APPs in Violation (2019)”


The proportion of problems found in the evaluation of commonly used apps

According to the report, from the evaluation results of thousands of commonly used apps, the proportion of problems found is reduced, typical problems The rectification effect is obvious. From March 2019, based on the reports of netizens and other situations, the APP special governance working group has evaluated the more than 1,000 apps that are downloaded and commonly used by users in six batches. The evaluation found a total of 6,976 questions about illegal collection and use of personal information, notified operators of 256 APPs, and urged them to complete the rectification of 1,267 key issues. It is recommended that the relevant regulatory authorities remove 11 APPs that have not implemented the rectification requirements. At the same time, the work of urging the rectification of APP operators is continuing.


Source: “Special Governance Report on the Collection and Use of Personal Information by APPs in Violation (2019)”

According to the report, among the four types of specific problems, the three types of problems of “no privacy policy”, “open multiple permissions at one time”, and “unclear purpose of applying for permission” have decreased significantly. The biggest drop in the “open multiple permissions at once” problem is that the APP sets the targetSdkVersion parameter value to less than 23, which leads to the user’s request to open all the permissions that can be collected for personal information at one time, otherwise it cannot be installed and used. By the end of 2019, this problem had tended to zero in common apps. With the gradual expansion of the assessment scope of the fifth and sixth batches, there are individual apps with lower downloads that still have a “no privacy policy” and “application right”Limited to unclear purpose. ”In view of the problem of“ collecting personal information not related to business functions ”, due to the complexity of defining the scope of“ irrelevant ”and other issues, the problem is currently found to be relatively small and in a fluctuating stage. As the focus of follow-up governance work.

The “Report” emphasizes that APP-specific governance work has achieved certain results. In the governance process, through the development of technical documents, testing and evaluation After the work has figured out the current status of personal information collection and use, and deepened the understanding of the cause of the problem. Regarding the challenges faced by the current personal information protection work and how to continue to carry out special governance work in the next step, the APP special governance working group recommends reporting acceptance and testing and evaluation The work needs to be continued, the scope of governance needs to be extended to the entire mobile ecosystem, the technical capacity for continuous supervision needs to be further strengthened, and the governance work model needs to be innovated and developed. (The original title is “APP Special Governance Working Group 2019 Transcript: 256 Questions APP” Be notified “