New law on pre-installed apps is step in the right direction

THE MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY has announced a temporary regulation covering pre-installed apps that will take effect on July 1. According to the regulation, smartphone producers should make sure users can dismantle all the pre-installed apps except those necessary for basic operations. Beijing Youth Daily commented:

A majority of the apps that are pre-installed are unnecessary for the normal use of the smartphones. On the contrary, some of them steal the data. Smartphone producers insist on installing these apps because they receive payments from the app developers, which has created an interest chain.

The ministry has twice issued notices forbidding smartphone producers from installing unnecessary apps, yet this black interest chain has never been cut. That's because there is no law prohibiting the practice.