Big data not an umbrella that shelters mining of app users' info

THE JIANGSU PROVINCIAL CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION has launched public interest litigation against Baidu, the largest search engine in China, charging that its two smartphone applications obtain information, such as monitoring users' phone calls, their location, and reading the text messages, among other things. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Wednesday:

This is the first time a consumer rights protection organization has sued one of the internet giants for infringing upon users' legal rights and interests. It is a meaningful case that deserves the attention of the whole of society, especially the administrative and judicial authorities.

A dangerous trend in the information age is that more and more people succumb to the monopoly power of technology companies and choose to keep silent about the fact that some companies unscrupulously take advantage of loopholes in the law and weak supervision to profit from data mining people's private information.