Apps will only be able to collect limited personal information

THE NATIONAL INFORMATION SECURITY Standardization Technical Committee is soliciting opinions from the public on the draft "Basic Norms for Collecting Personal Information for Internet Applications". Beijing News comments:

With the popularization of smartphones, there have been frequent cases of apps violating the privacy of users by excessively collecting users' information. Moreover, unless the users agree to the apps collecting their personal information they cannot use the apps.

Users' personal information, including age, income, geographical location and internet browsing history, is a "gold mine" for the app companies as it allows them to know the ins and outs of a user's life enabling them to target sales. Some of the internet enterprises even sell users' information to the third parties, which results in arbitrary violation of the users' personal privacy.