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China calls out ByteDance, Kuaishou, and LinkedIn for illegal data collection
- 105 apps, including some of the country’s most popular short video platforms, were put on notice by the Cyberspace Administration of China
- The internet watchdog found the apps were illegally collecting and misusing personal data
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China’s internet watchdog has named and shamed some of the country’s most popular mobile applications, including the Chinese version of TikTok, Kuaishou, LinkedIn and 102 other apps, for the illegal collection and use of personal data.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said that after receiving complaints from users, it had found that 105 apps had violated several laws and had infringed personal information through illegal access, over-collection and excessive authorisation, according to a notice on its WeChat official account.
Short video apps including Kuaishou and ByteDance-owned TikTok were included in the list as well as Microsoft-owned LinkedIn and Bing, Tencent-owned music streaming service Kugou, and search giant Baidu’s mobile browser.
All 105 apps have 15 working days to rectify the violation.
This is the latest batch of apps to face scrutiny after new regulations from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) came into effect on May 1. Since then the CAC has released similar notices on a regular basis that have called out security apps developed by Tencent Holdings, Baidu, and Alibaba Group Holding as well as apps in the categories of text-input, maps and instant messenger, including those developed by Baidu, Sogou, iFlyTek and Tencent.
The MIIT regulations, first announced in March, hold application providers accountable for collecting what it calls “excessive” user data unrelated to their core services, and forcing users to give uninformed consent to how their data is used.
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