Spotlight on penalties for shady apps

App become trends today.[Photo provided to Chinadaily]

A TECHNICAL INSPECTION of 55 smartphone apps, launched by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology during the second quarter of this year, found that 42 of them were illegally collecting users' information, promoting third-party apps and charging users for no good reason. Yanzhao Metropolis Daily commented on Wednesday:

If we are to rein in the shady business, it is not enough to simply expose the malicious smartphone apps and warn people to delete them. Effective supervision, institutional and technical, is needed to root out these pernicious apps.

On their part, app stores are obliged to not just screen out the harmful apps but also shut their door to their developers. In theory, they do not lack the means to detect and get rid of these apps, so what lies behind their inertia.

The root cause of the failure to keep harmful apps at bay is that people profit from them and there are no specific laws and regulations to deter them from producing and selling the apps. Nor is there any guideline with which cyberspace managers can impose needed sanctions on app developers that overstep the boundaries and infringe on the rights of users.

According to regulations enacted a year ago by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country's top internet watchdog, an app must be a single application not a bundle.

However, there are no punishments specified that can act as a deterrent. Legislative efforts are therefore needed to hold irresponsible developers and app stores accountable.