MIIT launches special campaign to promote governance of apps that infringe rights and interests

In order to effectively strengthen the protection of users' personal information, on 24 July 2020 the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the Notice on Carrying out the Special Campaign to Promote Governance on Apps that Infringe Upon Users' Rights and Interests, requiring that a national app testing platform management system be launched before the end of August 2020.(1) The testing platform management system is expected to complete testing for 400,000 mainstream apps before 10 December 2020.

This campaign focuses on the following illegal behaviour by app service providers, software development kits (SDKs) and app distribution platforms:

• Illegal behaviour by apps and SDKs, including:
  • the illegal collection of personal information;
  • the collection of personal information beyond the app's scope;
  • the illegal use of personal information; and
  • forcing users to use target pushing functions.
• Setting up barriers and frequently harassing users (eg, forcing users to give permission, frequently asking for users' permission or excessively asking for permission and frequent self-activation and associated activation of apps).
• Deceiving and misleading users, including deceiving or misleading users to download apps or provide personal information.
• The failure of app distribution platforms to meet their obligations, including not clearly stating information about the apps which they distribute and failing to implement adequate management responsibility.

According to the notice, the MIIT will use third-party testing agencies to conduct technical testing of apps and SDKs and supervise and inspect that app distribution platforms are fulfilling their responsibilities. Companies found to have problems during the first inspection will be ordered to complete rectification within five working days. If there are still problems after rectification, they may face punishment, including:

• public exposure of their failure to fulfil their requirements under the notice;
• removals;
• administrative penalties; and
• listing as a bad business operator or untrustworthy telecoms businesses.

Companies that have repeated problems with different versions of the same app will face public exposure of their failure to fulfil their requirements under the notice as well as follow-up disposal measures.

For further information on this topic please contact Samuel Yang or Yang Chen at AnJie Law Firm by telephone (+86 10 8567 5988) or email (yanghongquan@anjielaw.com or chenyang@anjielaw.com). The AnJie Law Firm website can be accessed at www.anjielaw.com.

Endnotes

(1) See here.