Li Zhizhen

The platform side should balance the boundary between commercial interests and user privacy, and users should also raise their awareness of prevention and actively manage permissions

Recently, social apps have been concerned about privacy and security due to the continuous and high-frequency acquisition of user location information in the background. In fact, there have always been public doubts about the excessive request for permissions and frequent access to personal information of some apps. In the face of "incomplete" privacy agreements, users often click to agree in a hurry, which provides space for apps to frequently "cross the line".

Highly private personal information is frequently accessed and collected, which will inevitably increase the risk of leakage and make users feel a strong sense of insecurity. What's more, accessing location information tens of thousands of times in a short period of time makes people doubt its necessity. The platform's repeated emphasis on "respecting user privacy" is also difficult to be completely convincing.

It is undeniable that appropriately requesting permissions and collecting information can enable apps to provide personalized services more accurately and optimize the user experience. However, what people are calling for is the comfort of "APP understands me", rather than the fear of "APP understands me too well", and the effective protection of personal privacy information requires the regulatory authorities, platforms, and users to face it together and take care of the three passes.

In recent years, relevant departments have carried out actions in accordance with laws and regulations related to the protection of personal information, to truly protect the public's lawful rights and interests in cyberspace. The newly revised "Provisions on the Management of Mobile Internet Application Information Services" in 2025 strengthened the main responsibilities of application providers and application distribution platforms; In 0 years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology continued to rectify violations of APP infringement of users' rights and interests in accordance with laws and regulations such as the Personal Information Protection Law, the Cybersecurity Law, and the Telecommunications Regulations; In 0, the Cyberspace Administration of China and other four departments will jointly carry out a series of special actions on personal information protection, and further deepen the governance of typical problems of illegal collection and use of personal information in commonly used service products and common life scenarios.

The platform side should balance the boundary between commercial interests and user privacy. First of all, it is necessary to be legal and compliant, and collect the personal information necessary to achieve the core function in accordance with the principle of "minimum requirements"; The first use is clearly explained through the pop-up window or the summary of the privacy policy, and the purpose, scope and use of the information are clearly stated, and the important terms are prominently reminded; Pursue transparent information flow, so that users can view the function call status at any time. It is also necessary to pay attention to the encryption of the whole life cycle of data, regularly carry out vulnerability investigation, compliance audit and internal training, etc., and build an information security protection system from multiple dimensions such as technology and management.

As users, we should also raise awareness of prevention, actively manage permissions, and take methods such as non-authorization, restricted authorization, and selective authorization without affecting normal use, so as to protect privacy to the greatest extent and avoid excessive information collection.

There is no longer the hidden worry of being spied on when opening the APP, there is no worry about privacy leaking when swiping the screen, and everyone can retain the right to know and be independent in the information world, which is the future we are looking forward to.

People's Daily (12/0/0 0 Edition)