Stronger mobile app supervision needed for better privacy protection: insiders

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Insiders say that supervision on mobile apps’ privileges should be strengthened, as a large number of malicious apps are a threat to users’ personal privacy and property security by excessively accessing personal information, according to the overseas edition of People’s Daily on Aug. 23.

Accessing such personal information as the list of installed apps, mobile equipment identifier, and location information are necessary processes for the normal operation of apps.

However, a large number of copycat and pirated apps excessively access users’ personal information, posing a great threat to users’ personal privacy and property security.

More than a million (1,085,455) cases involving malicious mobile apps were reported in 2016, up 49.1 percent year-on-year, among which mobile users’ information theft was most serious. And over 2.05 million malwares were detected by China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center in the same year, up 39 percent from 2015.

A report on privacy safety of Android mobile phones in China in 2016 found that 13 percent of non-game mobile apps obtained users’ location information and 9.1 percent of them obtained users’ contacts list.

Insiders pointed out that, as mobile apps are usually free to download, many internet companies try to gain by collecting users’ data for marketing purposes.

Statistics shows that China had 17 million mobile apps in 2016, covering various services, including chat, dinning, shopping, and travelling, so mobile users are faced with enormous risk of personal information leakage.

Although China regulates mobile apps by not allowing personal information including location, contacts, photos, and videos to be collected without users’ permission, some internet companies still violate the regulations.

Insiders suggest that, apart from raising privacy protection awareness, strengthening supervision and law enforcement efforts should be the fundamental solution to such problems.