On 27 March 2019 the Shanghai Consumer Council (SCC) held a conference to release the results of its assessment of 39 apps which are frequently used in China, including those that provide online shopping, travel and lifestyle services. The aim of the assessment was to evaluate the level of access that these apps had to users' personal information.
The assessment revealed that:
- 25 apps had been over collecting users' personal information; and
- only 14 apps had actual service-related reasons which justified their collection of sensitive personal information.
In 2018 the SCC carried out two similar assessments, which focused on map-related apps and apps for browsers, input methods and video services.
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