How much "psoriasis" is hidden in your mobile app?
Pop-up ads can’t be closed
● Mobile apps have brought convenience to people’s lives, but the subsequent issues such as open-screen pop-up advertisements, forced download registration, and inducing sharing have also brought users trouble
● The rectification action has achieved remarkable results. A number of regulatory documents related to Internet advertising have been released. However, some mobile apps show the characteristics of "problems frequently-supervision and governance-safety and stability-recurrence", and the chaos of mobile app advertising is still needed In-depth governance
● Strengthen administrative law enforcement, improve credit record supervision mechanisms, and encourage citizens to complain and report their rights; enterprises must perform their duties and provide users with a safe App environment
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
□ The reporter's trainee reporter Zhang Shoukun
□ Intern Wang Yitian
Open some mobile apps, you will encounter pop-up ads, I want to close them but I can’t find the button, some pop-ups click to view, but jump to the ad page; I browsed a video on a game short video app and accidentally clicked on the ad page Later, many game apps were downloaded; if you registered a certain movie and TV app, if you don’t have a top-up member, a page asking for sharing will always pop up when you watch the show...
Mobile apps have brought convenience to people's lives, but the subsequent issues such as open-screen pop-up advertisements, forced download registration, and inducing sharing have also brought users trouble.
The notice recently issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of “optimizing the display of information in the open pop-up window of the App” has given many users hope.
The notice requires that Internet companies should set obvious and effective close buttons in their App opening information and pop-up information windows, and must not use full-screen images, videos, etc. as jump links to induce users to click or easily cause users to click by mistake.
Experts interviewed by reporters from the "Rules of Law Daily" believe that to control App advertising chaos, we need to improve relevant laws and regulations and industry standards, strengthen administrative law enforcement, etc., and intensify rectification efforts.
Pop-up ads are everywhere
Frequent pop-ups are difficult to close
When reading on a certain online novel App, every time the novel is updated, he must be forced to watch an advertisement, which annoys Mr. Wang, a citizen of Nanjing, Jiangsu.
"After reading a novel, there are countless advertisements." Mr. Wang said that he understands the difficulty of software operators, but frequent pop-up advertisements seriously affect the reading experience.
According to Mr. Wang, in some video apps, even if the user opens a membership, a variety of advertisements will still pop up, such as summary ads, pause page ads, end credit ads, pop-up ads, and marquee ads.
"Some pop-up advertisements are very annoying. The movie and TV plot continues, but the pop-up advertisements start to scroll in the lower left or right corners. The previous advertisements were one-liner and tolerable; now it has become a not-so-small picture. It's not too short, it blocks part of the movie and TV screen and affects the viewing experience." Mr. Wang said.
Mr. Wang's use experience is not an individual case.
According to the survey data of the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission, after analyzing and testing the advertising behavior of 600 mobile apps, it was found that 58% of them would pop up advertisements, and 69.7% of them did not have a close button.
Reporters have recently experienced multiple apps and found that when many apps are launched, the first thing that catches your eye is full-screen ads, generally lasting from 5 to ten seconds. Some ads have a skip or close button, while some do not. , Users can only watch passively.
In addition, the close button or skip button on the advertisement page of some apps is very small, and it is easy to make mistakes. If you click it accidentally, you will jump to the advertisement page. The return button in the advertisement page is also set to be small and extremely difficult to find.
Reporters try to close the pop-up advertisements of many apps, and it usually takes 3 to 10 seconds, which greatly reduces the user experience.
According to Xu Yue, a staff member of the Propaganda Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission, an online survey by the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission this year found that 46% of consumers report that online pop-ups have a great impact on daily use or work, and are extremely disgusted.
The content of pop-up advertisements has vulgar pornography, false promotion of drugs and curative effects, which seriously pollutes the network environment and becomes one of the incentives for netizens to commit crimes.
"Unclosable pop-up advertisements violate the Advertising Law, Consumer Rights Protection Law and the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising" and other laws and regulations. They violate consumers' right to choose and need to be governed." Communication University of China Culture Said Zheng Ning, director of the Cultural Law Research Center of the School of Industrial Management.
Mandatory download of implied routines
Bundled and installed
In addition to pop-up advertisements, compulsory downloading is also one of the chaos that App has been criticized repeatedly.
The reporter's investigation found that the compulsory download problem is mainly concentrated in social, shopping, financial management software and some functional applications.
Take a well-known social app as an example. When a user uses the app to view files such as Word, if the designated browser is not downloaded on the phone, the user can only view the content of the document, and cannot modify the content of the document or enlarge the font on the page. Check.
If you want to use the edit and edit function, you need to download the browser specified by the App or use other applications.
Also in this App, if the user wants to view the contents of the compressed package, the system will automatically jump to a page, and it is recommended to use its designated browser to decompress this file.
At the bottom of the page is an option to "install this browser to unzip".
If you want to use "Other Ways to Open", you need to find a gray option hidden under the "Install this browser decompression" option.
There are also some shopping apps that have compulsory downloads.
The reporter found in a well-known shopping app that if you want to use the "white bar" payment function that comes with the app, the system will "strongly recommend" users to download one of its financial apps when repayment.
If the user feels that it is too troublesome to repay by himself every time and wants to set up automatic repayment, a window will pop up on the "white bar" interface, stating that it is necessary to download one of its financial apps to activate this function, and below the window is The eye-catching "go to download" button.
Below this button, there is a line of small gray words that says "I want to stay."
After the reporter clicked the "I want to stay" option, they found that the automatic repayment function can actually be activated.
Some users questioned: "Since you can enable automatic repayment without downloading its financial app, why does this shopping app tell users'need' to download it at the beginning?"
In addition, the reporter found that if you sell second-hand products in this shopping app, the money received by users will be credited to their "small vault", and to withdraw cash from the "small vault", you also need to download the financial app.
Mr. Li, who lives in Heping District, Tianjin, is keen on playing games, and he usually uses short video apps for games.
He found that these apps often pop up some advertisements. If they are accidentally clicked, they will not only automatically download some software, but also automatically install them.
"Sometimes I used a short video for one night, and the next day I found that there were two more game apps on the phone, and it was annoying that I wanted to uninstall it but couldn't uninstall it." Mr. Li said helplessly.
In fact, as early as 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology promulgated the "Interim Provisions on the Management of Presetting and Distribution of Mobile Smart Terminal Application Software". Other applications that infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of users or endanger network security.
In Zheng Ning's view, downloading and uninstalling apps are the rights of users, and application software operators should respect the wishes of users, and compulsory downloads and uninstalls are illegal.
"Some App operators blindly pursue economic interests and adopt methods that infringe users' rights, and they should bear corresponding legal responsibilities."
Full of inducing sharing routines
Many users are troubled
"A friend who hasn't been in contact for a long time suddenly came to me. Wouldn't you let me help you bargain?"
Some App inducements to share make many users very upset. Mr. Ye, who works for an Internet company in Beijing, suffers from such information intrusion.
It turns out that Mr. Ye’s cell phone ringing frequently occurs almost every once in a while.
Because he was worried about missing important information, it seemed impolite not to reply in time. He would check it in time every time, and found that some of the information was bargaining sent by classmates who hadn't contacted for a long time or sharing a link to an App.
"Induced sharing is not only annoying for people who share, it's even more annoying for people like us who passively receive shared information. If I help, what should I do next time? Isn't it too polite if I don't order? "Mr. Ye said.
According to the clues provided by Mr. Ye, the reporter also downloaded this app and found that it was full of tricks to induce users to share, including how many people gathered to bargain for free products, and inviting newcomers to activate large red envelopes.
On a certain film and television app, the reporter found that if only registered users and no recharged members, users will always pop up a page asking for sharing when watching a video, which usually appears after more than ten minutes or half of the time. If they don’t share, they will pop up. The video interface cannot continue to watch.
Even if it is reopened, the sharing interface will still pop up at the same number of minutes, and it cannot be closed. You must share to continue watching.
Some game apps are also full of content that induces sharing, such as sharing to receive daily gift packs and sharing to receive gold coins.
Regarding this kind of phenomenon, Wu Xumeng, a lawyer from Guizhou Xinrui Linyang Law Firm, bluntly stated that inducing or compulsory sharing violates the true wishes of the user and is suspected of infringing the user's right to choose.
Strengthen administrative law enforcement
Create a safe use environment
Relevant departments have been taking actions against the violations of these App regulations that have been strongly reported by users and have many complaints.
In October 2020, the National Cyberspace Administration of China issued a list of the first batch of special rectifications for the chaos of mobile App pop-up advertisements.
In July of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology conducted a intensive rectification of the problem of using text, pictures, videos and other forms to deceive and mislead users to jump on the App opening information page in the ongoing special rectification of mobile apps.
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has carried out information and communication service perception enhancement actions, requiring the optimization of the way that the App open pop-up window information is displayed. Internet companies should set up obvious and effective close buttons in their App open-screen information and pop-up information windows. Button size, location, The color should be easy to operate and recognize, allowing users to "find it and close it".
App opening information window shall not use whole screen pictures, videos, etc. as jump links to induce users to click or easily cause users to click by mistake, causing inconvenience to users.
The interviewed experts pointed out that the rectification action has achieved remarkable results. A number of normative documents related to Internet advertising have been released, but some mobile apps show the characteristics of "problems frequently-regulatory governance-safe and stable-recurring again", and mobile app advertising The chaos still needs in-depth management.
They unanimously suggested that efforts should be made to improve relevant laws, regulations and industry standards, strengthen administrative law enforcement, and continue to increase the rectification of app violations.
"Since the Personal Information Protection Law was formally implemented, many App operators have revised their user agreements in a timely manner to comply with legal regulations. This shows that the legislative standard has an immediate effect on such phenomena. For App violations, further revisions and detailed management are needed. Measures, formulate personalized and customized supervision plans for various App issues, and use laws and regulations to restrict and standardize the business behavior of App operators in publishing advertisements and application data." Xu Yue said.
Zheng Ning suggested that administrative law enforcement should be strengthened, the credit record supervision mechanism should be improved, and citizens should be encouraged to complain and report their rights; enterprises should perform their duties and provide users with a safe App environment to achieve the unification of social and economic benefits.