Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: 540 apps that violated regulations in handling user information and refused to make corrections have been removed

     On November 16, according to media reports, Wang Peng, deputy director of the Information and Communications Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that in recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has focused on issues such as APPs that have been strongly reflected by the people, such as illegal handling of user personal information, setting obstacles, harassing users, and deceiving and misleading users. As of now, it has organized 21 batches of inspections totaling 2.44 million APPs, reported a total of 2,049 illegal APPs, and removed 540 APPs that refused to rectify.

　　Wang Peng said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has continuously strengthened the management of the key responsibility chain of app stores and urged app stores to strengthen self-inspection and cleanup. App stores have proactively removed more than 400,000 illegal apps.

　　It is reported that the "Regulations on the Scope of Necessary Personal Information for Common Types of Mobile Internet Applications" came into effect on May 1 this year. The regulations clarify the scope of necessary personal information for 39 common types of mobile applications, such as map navigation, online car-hailing, instant messaging, and online shopping, and require that APPs should not refuse users from using their basic functional services because the users do not agree to provide non-essential personal information.

　　Among them, the basic functional service of map navigation is "positioning and navigation", and the necessary personal information is location information, departure point, and destination. The basic functional service of instant messaging is "providing online instant messaging services such as text, pictures, voice, and video", and the necessary personal information includes the registered user's mobile phone number.