The Rules on the Scope of Necessary Personal Information for Common Types of Mobile Internet Applications will be implemented on May 1, 2021
On March 12, 2021, the Secretary of the Cyberspace Administration of China, General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, General Office of the Ministry of Public Security, and the General Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly published the “Rules on the Scope of Necessary Personal Information for Common Types of Mobile Internet Applications” (Guo Xin Ban Mi Zi [2021] No.14, hereinafter referred to as the “Rules”), in which it stipulates that any App shall not refuse users to use its basic functional services on the ground that users disagree to provide unnecessary personal information.
In view of this, it is recommended to get to know the scope of Apps and necessary personal information.
- To specify the object
Article 2 of the “Rules” stipulates that Apps shall include application software pre-set, downloaded and installed on mobile smart terminals, and applets developed based on the open platform interface of application software, which can be used by users without installation.
- To clarify the scope of necessary personal information
Article 5 of the “Rules” lists 39 categories of common types of Apps, in which 26 categories require necessary personal information. The scope of necessary personal information of those 26 categories shall be determined case by case, in accordance with its basic functional service.
For example, for online shopping, the basic functional service is “purchase of goods”, and the necessary personal information includes: (1) mobile phone numbers of registered users; (2) name, address and contact phone number of consignees; and (3) payment time, amount and channels of payment and other payment information.
Another example is the food and beverage takeaway, the basic functional service is “purchase and delivery of food and beverage”, and the necessary personal information includes: (1) mobile phone numbers of registered users; (2) name, address and contact phone number of consignees; and (3) payment time, amount and channels of payment and other payment information.
For the rest 13 categories, users do not have to provide any personal information to use the basic functional services. Those 13 categories are, (1) female health, such as female menstrual management, preparation for pregnancy and child-rearing, beauty and other health management services); (2) online live streaming; (3) online film and video; (4) short videos; (5) news and information; (6) sports and fitness; (7) browsers; (8) input methods; (9) security management, such as finding out and kill viruses, sort out malicious plug-ins and patch vulnerabilities); (10) electronic books; (11) shooting beautification; (12) App stores; and (13) utility tools, such as calendar, weather, dictionary translation, calculator, remote control, flashlight, compass, clock alarm, file transfer, file management, wallpaper and ringtone, screenshot recording, recording, document processing, smart home assistant, constellation character test, etc..