Sharing personal info price of using apps

A China Central Television report says that several smartphone apps obtain user information by getting started even if the users hardly ever uses those apps.

ULearning, an e-learning app, reportedly tried to access users' photo galleries 25,000 times within a quarter of an hour. TIM, a chat app used by office-goers, tried to start on its own 7,000 times in an hour even though the users never touched its icon.

Smartphone apps violating user's privacy is not something new.

And the law requires all apps to obtain a user's permission before accessing his or her private information. However, the app developers have found a way out by drafting voluminous terms and conditions that the users must agree to before they can use them. Hardly anybody has the patience to read the tediously long fine print. Most users just scroll down to the end and click on "I agree". And hidden between those lines are clauses allowing the apps to access the user's address book, photo album or files. Therefore, the apps are actually accessing users' personal information legally, with their consent, although the users might not have realized it.

However, it is unfair to blame users for giving apps the permission. Even if the users are reading the clauses carefully, they are written by professional teams and can mislead users, who are not expected to be professional lawyers.

One way to end this invasion of privacy is to bring in tighter supervision of smartphone apps. The authorities could ask professionals to regularly evaluate whether the authorization the apps are seeking from users is necessary. For example, why should a navigation app require access to the users' photo galleries and/or address books. Bringing in such oversight would ensure the app developers do not take advantage of those using their products.