On the morning of January 25th, four departments, including the Central Network Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the General Administration of Market Supervision, held a press conference and jointly issued the "Announcement on Special Governance for the Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information by App".
In recent years, Mobile Internet Application (App) has been widely used, which has played an irreplaceable role in promoting economic and social development and serving people’s livelihood. At the same time, the phenomenon of compulsory authorization, excessive claim and over-range collection of personal information by App exists in large numbers, and the problem of illegal use of personal information is very prominent, which is strongly reflected by the majority of netizens. In order to effectively control the chaos in the protection of personal information, the four departments decided to organize a nationwide special treatment for the illegal collection and use of personal information by App from January to December 2019.
The "Announcement" pointed out that when collecting and using personal information, App operators should strictly fulfill their responsibilities and obligations stipulated in the Cyber Security Law, be responsible for the security of personal information obtained, and take effective measures to strengthen the protection of personal information. Follow the principles of legality, justness and necessity, and do not collect personal information irrelevant to the services provided; When collecting personal information, the rules for the collection and use of personal information should be displayed in an easy-to-understand and simple way, and the subject of personal information should choose and agree independently; Do not force users to authorize in disguise by default, binding, stopping installation and use, and do not collect and use personal information in violation of laws and regulations and agreements with users. Advocate App operators to provide users with the option of refusing to receive targeted push when they push news, current affairs and advertisements.
This special governance will focus on the following tasks: First, organize relevant professional organizations to evaluate the privacy policy of App and the collection and use of personal information with a large number of users and closely related to people’s lives. The second is to strengthen the supervision and punishment of illegal collection and use of personal information, including ordering the relevant App operators to rectify within a time limit; Overdue reform, public exposure; If the circumstances are serious, the relevant business shall be suspended, the business shall be suspended for rectification, the relevant business license shall be revoked or the business license shall be revoked. Third, the public security organs have carried out special work to crack down on illegal and criminal activities that infringe on citizens’ personal information through the Internet, and severely crack down on illegal and criminal activities that target and use personal information according to law. The fourth is to carry out voluntary App personal information security certification, and encourage search engines, App stores, etc. to clearly identify and give priority to recommending certified apps.
It is hoped that the majority of App operators will take the initiative to check and correct themselves according to the requirements of laws and regulations, standardize the collection and use of personal information, and effectively improve the level of personal information protection.