Red Star News:

Online mobile app stores have been notified to remove ride-hailing service app Didi Chuxing due to its serious violations of laws and regulations regarding the collection and use of personal information. In recent years, MIIT has been promoting data protection in mobile apps. Could you share with us the progress made regarding these issues in 2021, especially with the rectification of the apps in violation of users' rights? What will MIIT do next to improve data protection? Thank you.

Tian Yulong:

Thank you. Mr. Zhao Zhiguo will take your questions.

Zhao Zhiguo:

This year, we launched a special campaign and adopted a series of measures to rectify the infringement of users' rights in mobile apps. The measures have been quite effective. We have noticed that the Didi Chuxing app has been taken down from online stores. We will work with related departments, with each of us assuming our respective responsibilities, in order to rectify problems in mobile apps.

In the next step, given the current situation, we will work on the following three aspects in response to issues of wide public concern. First, we will enhance institutional development and standard-setting. Specifically, we will launch an interim regulation on the protection of personal information on mobile apps along with several other departments. The regulation is targeted toward the protection of user information and is based on opinions and common ground reached by various knowledgeable circles. This will be one of our priorities for the next step. Moreover, with more and more types of mobile apps seen in the market, we will improve standard-setting and routine testing in order to form a solid foundation for better management.

Second, we will launch a campaign to improve user experience among mobile apps. By screening apps that offer undesirable services and poor user experience, we will identify those that have received more user complaints, and further take strong, targeted, and effective measures to improve the quality of service among those apps. We believe that it is necessary to conduct such a campaign as mobile apps are used widely and are an important part of people's lives, studies, and work. 

Third, on the basis of regular supervision, we will carry out follow-up checks on the problems that occurred in the previous rectification period and establish a ledger and responsibility list system for key issues and key enterprises, especially for the recurring issues that people are most concerned about, such as accessing the address book, users' location information, among others. We will increase punishments for those who access these databases when they are not necessary for usage scenarios, as they do not meet the minimum necessary principle of access of information collection. For entities whose rectification is not in place and the implementation results are poor, we will incorporate them into our credit management based on rectification. All in all, we will make sure that the rectified problems of the apps do not rebound or repeat so that people can have a better sense of gain and security and can use all kinds of apps in a safe and clean internet environment, ideally to meet the needs of ordinary people in all aspects of life, study, and work.