Our reporter Xie Ruolin
On February 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology notified the first batch of APPs that violated user rights and interests in 2022, including a total of 107 APPs, and video and live broadcast software became the hardest hit areas.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that in accordance with laws and regulations such as the Personal Information Protection Law, the Cybersecurity Law, the Telecommunications Regulations, and the Regulations on the Protection of Personal Information of Telecommunications and Internet Users, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently organized a third-party testing agency to conduct mobile Internet applications (APPs). Check, as of now, there are still 107 APPs that have not been rectified.
In general, the APPs that have not completed the rectification are mainly information, video, and live broadcast software, including Haoshitong Cloud Conference, Cloud Home, Dangbeijia, Einstein FM, Today's Film and Television, Bobo Video, Mobile TV, Huitoutiao, Dragon Ball Live, Hot Cat Live, Bear Live, etc., the problems focus on "forcing users to use the directional push function", "violating the collection of personal information", and "collecting personal information beyond the scope, etc.".
This is after the implementation of the "Personal Information Protection Law" on November 1, 2021, the regulatory authorities once again rectified the illegal APP.
Zhao Ming, a partner of Beijing Zhongtong Law Firm, said in an interview with a reporter from "Securities Daily", "First of all, a large number of APPs are facing removal from the shelves due to infringing on user information, indicating that these APP-related companies have weak legal awareness, lack of responsibility concepts, and lack of data. Lack of security awareness. First of all, even if the rectification was required to be completed within a time limit, it was not completed on time; secondly, this also reflects the strengthening of government supervision. Administrative management and means continued, corporate supervision was further strengthened, and efforts to crack down on citizens’ information and data security increased, making Relevant enterprises dare not commit, will not commit, or will not commit; again, the Personal Information Protection Law and the Cybersecurity Law are by no means empty words, nor are data security guarantees empty words. Data security will be a more important issue at the national level in the future. an area of focus.”
It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology found that 13 embedded third-party software development kits (SDKs) had violated the behavior of collecting user equipment information.
These APPs with embedded third-party software development kits (SDKs) include: Second Check SDK, Share SDK, NetEase Qiyu SDK, Pangolin SDK, Xunfei Speech Recognition SDK, Gionee Mobile SDK, etc.
According to Tianyancha data, the developer of NetEase Qiyu SDK application is Hangzhou NetEase Quality Cloud Technology Co., Ltd., which was established on August 24, 2016. The major shareholder is Ding Lei (99% of the shares), and the main product is "NetEase Circle". "Circle" is a real-name social platform created by applying blockchain technology, and a social point system with the core of blockchain.
On February 1, 2020, the NetEase Circle has ceased operations.
NetEase Qiyu is a 2B intelligent cloud customer service platform under NetEase.
Regarding the relationship between the above two apps, NetEase did not respond positively to reporters.
A TMT industry analyst who did not want to be named told the "Securities Daily" reporter: "Embedding a third-party software development kit (SDK) is equivalent to using ready-made development tools provided by third parties in the software development process, and using ready-made development tools. Tools can improve the efficiency of software development, but some SDKs may illegally obtain user information, and APPs developed with this SDK will automatically perform excessively requesting information in the background.”
"The above-mentioned APP and SDK should complete the rectification and implementation work before February 25. If the rectification is not made within the time limit, our ministry will organize relevant disposal work in accordance with laws and regulations." The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
Zhao Ming further stated that the regulatory authorities are comprehensively managing and cracking down on illegal and criminal acts that infringe on citizens' personal information.
In 2021, the Ministry of Public Security, together with the Central Cyberspace Administration of China and other ministries and commissions, will carry out the "Cleaning the Internet 2021" special campaign nationwide. The public security organs have investigated and handled more than 62,000 related cases and arrested more than 103,000 criminal suspects throughout the year.
"Supervision is strong, not only to remove apps that infringe on citizens' personal information, but also to crack down on black-related crimes such as personal information transactions behind the scenes."
(Securities Daily)