It’s hard to tell you about APP ads
Our reporter Fu Lili
The consumer civil public interest litigation of "smart TV startup advertisement" that lasted nearly a year finally came to fruition.
Recently, the Jiangsu Consumer Protection Committee claimed to the court that the smart TV startup advertisement must have the "one-click shutdown" function, which was supported by the judgment.
TV advertisements can finally be turned off, but some APP advertisements still cannot be turned off with one click.
WeChat Moments will push personalized advertisements, and there is no option to close them. Some apps will force users to "appreciate" advertisements that last for tens of seconds before use, which is annoying.
On December 16, the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Committee issued the "App Advertising Consumer Rights Protection Evaluation Report (2020)".
After 15 consecutive months of monitoring advertisements on 1,600 different types of apps, the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission found that APP advertisements could not be turned off and personalized advertisement recommendations were not selectable. Some APP advertisements were still obtained illegally. User information, private downloading of new apps without the user’s permission, etc.
Get user information to complete ad recommendation
Technical experts pointed out that most APP advertisements are precision push-type advertisements, and a large number of APP advertisements also adopt a bidding transaction mode in the backend. This kind of delivery mode is based on obtaining a large amount of information from consumers.
"Now that there are portrait and tracking technology, it is possible to know what you want to buy or guess what you want to buy." He Yanzhe, an expert on the APP special governance working group, told a reporter from Science and Technology Daily.
Industry experts said that there are many ways to directly or indirectly obtain user data and improve user portraits.
The most common source of user data is still the user’s personal data and browsing data, including search history, length of stay on each page, which page to enter from which page, etc., so as to establish a set of portraits with multiple tags for users, such as "Male, graduated from postgraduate, 40 years old, upper income, married, have a child, keep pets, etc.".
Even less noticeable is the SDK (software development kit) embedded in the APP.
It is a plug-in that provides specific functions or services in the APP, such as advertising, payment, maps, etc.
The significance of the SDK is that when a developer needs to call a function, he does not need to develop it from scratch, but only needs to access the SDK.
Experts explain that when both apps A and B use the same advertising SDK, then the data collected by A and B may be uploaded to this SDK, and data sharing is naturally formed between A and B.
The user's search history and usage habits on A may be reflected on B.
Indeed, in recent years, personal information security issues introduced by third-party SDKs cannot be underestimated.
On December 22, the "Annual Report on Personal Information Security" released by the Southern Metropolis Daily showed that its evaluation and analysis of the collection and use of personal information by 60 apps found that each app uses 11.3 SDKs on average.
The evaluation results of 20 head SDKs show that 30% of the SDK actually obtains permissions that exceed the permissions declared in the official documents, and are suspected of concealing the collection of user personal information.
It’s really not easy to turn off APP ads
You can send me ads, why can't I close it?
This is also one of the biggest slots for APP advertising.
"The draft "Personal Information Protection Law" proposes that users can be profiled and advertisements can be pushed, but users have the right to know, control, and delete." He Yanzhe said.
According to the Advertising Law, “if an advertisement is sent by electronic information, the sender’s true identity and contact information shall be clearly indicated, and the recipient shall be provided with a way to refuse to continue receiving”.
The "App Advertising Consumer Rights Protection Evaluation Report (2020)" conducted an in-depth analysis of the advertising behavior of 600 apps and found that 58% of the apps contained advertisements, and 69.7% of them did not have a "close button".
At the same time, a test of 600 APP related functions found that only 14.5% of APPs can find personalized advertisements to recommend closing the entrance.
Finding the closed entrance is not so easy to turn off the ad.
According to media reports, under the guidance of experts, the reporter passed "I-Settings-About WeChat-"WeChat Privacy Protection Guidelines"-Tencent "Privacy Policy"-Advertising-About Advertising-How to Manage the Ads You See-Management-Personalization Recommended advertisements-login" waited for more than 10 pages before closing the personalized advertisement recommendation function of WeChat Moments.
However, WeChat also reminded that after turning off this feature, "you will still see ads, but the relevance will be reduced"; and the validity period for users who actively choose to turn off personalized advertising recommendations is only 6 months.
If you don’t repeat the above operations, the WeChat Moments will automatically recommend personalized ads.
Give users a chance to say no
As for the purpose of the APP advertising platform for not giving consumers the right to turn off advertising, He Yanzhe analyzed that this is related to the free Internet business model. Consumers have become accustomed to obtaining free information on the Internet, but businesses always have to make a profit, and advertising is undoubtedly It is a good way of support.
If everyone shuts down advertising, this business model cannot be supported.
He Yanzhe himself is not really disgusted with Internet cross-platform advertising, because he knows that the information transmitted in the middle is for the user portrait of the device, rather than personally identifiable information, such as mobile phone number, ID number, and address.
"We are not going to completely ban personalized advertising. If there is no personalized advertising, then we can only return to the advertising era of traditional media." He Yanzhe said, but merchants must also moderately push advertisements and give users the right to close.
He Yanzhe believes that the biggest problem at present is that the advertising logic is not transparent enough.
Consumers must be clear about what personal data the APP collects, what is the purpose of this data, and whether I can prohibit others from using this data.
For example, on Google, users can see a series of tags generated by the system based on personal preferences, including educational background, family income, marital status, pets, etc., so that people can know the content that Google may push.
At the same time, Google users can also choose to turn off personalized push with one click.
Fortunately, in response to this kind of advertising chaos, the relevant departments have begun to fight hard.
In July this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Promoting the Special Rectification of APP Infringing User Rights and Interests", focusing on APP and SDK's illegal handling of personal information, setting up barriers, frequent harassment of users, deception and misleading users, and insufficient implementation of responsibility for application distribution platforms And other issues.
According to statistics, as of the end of the third quarter of 2020, the number of apps detected in the domestic market exceeded 3.5 million.
Wen Ku, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Director of the Information and Communication Development Department, said on December 24 that up to now, 520,000 apps have been tested and a batch of problematic apps have been found and 1,571 apps have been ordered. The illegal apps were rectified, 500 models were publicly notified, and 120 models were directly removed from the shelves if the rectification was not in place or refused to be rectified.
"Only standardization can realize the automation and intelligence of supervision and inspection." said Liu Liehong, deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
To this end, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has formulated 10 standards in the "App User Rights Protection Evaluation Specification".
Regarding the principle of collecting and using users’ personal information such as “minimal necessity” that consumers are particularly concerned about, a series of related standards have been formulated, covering the collection and use of information such as address records, audio recordings, faces, locations, pictures, software lists, equipment, and videos. Wait.
At the same time, strictly observing the compliance of advertisements and advertisers is also an important line of defense for safeguarding consumer safety. Industry experts said that APP publishers must fulfill their obligation to review the content of advertisements and "check them" for consumers.
"APP has always wanted to monetize data, but it has neglected that data should be used to provide people with better services. Only by transforming it into this concept can it become more usable, safer, and more promising." He Yanzhe emphasized.
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APP eavesdropping on our conversation? Technically feasible and commercially unnecessary
Many people in life have similar experiences. Whatever things are involved in a conversation, they will soon receive corresponding advertisements.
So many people wonder whether the APP eavesdropped on our conversation, or how could it be so accurate?
He Yanzhe said that APP eavesdropping is theoretically feasible, as long as the recording permission of the mobile phone is turned on, the recording can be realized.
However, the mobile phone operating system will set switches and reminders for the recording permissions, so that it is easy to be found, making the recording less easy to conceal.
"Once it is discovered, it will form a real hammer. Collecting sensitive personal information without the user's permission will violate the law. Taking such a big risk to push an advertisement is not worth the loss for the business." He Yanzhe said, and eavesdropping will cause a lot of The cost of storing these voice information is high, and then screening and extracting them.
As for why many people have the illusion of APP eavesdropping on our conversations, He Yanzhe said, for example, if you walk into a Nike store and find that your Moments pushes a Nike ad, you think there is a problem.
But in fact, Nike may have pushed this advertisement to 1 billion Internet users across the country, but you just happen to be in the store.
He Yanzhe said that when they checked more than a thousand apps frequently used by users, they had not found any app overhearing.