On 25 May 2020 the App Special Governance Panel issued the 2019 Special Governance Report on Apps for Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information, summarising governance efforts from January 2019 when the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly released the Circular on Special Governance of Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information by Apps.(1)

According to the report, illegal collection and use activities by apps will be cracked down on and enterprises' capacity to protect personal information will be greatly improved. Further, knowledge of personal information protection by apps should be extensively available. The report also proposes the following governance:

  • complaint and testing mechanisms should be continuously carried out;
  • the scope of governance should be extended from app governance to the whole mobile ecology, including the protection of hardware and mobile phone manufacturers, third-party software development kits and app distribution stores;
  • monitoring and technical testing means are to be improved; and
  • the governance model is to be innovated by encouraging the public to participate in the monitoring of apps and introducing professional interpretation and comments on the incident of personal information security by apps.

Endnotes

(1) For more information please see here.