Internet watchdog finds 33 mobile apps broke data

Mobile banking app.

China’s main internet watchdog has found that 33 mobile phone apps have broken data privacy rules by collecting data without consent, among other issues.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), in a statement published on Saturday on its official website, identified map apps, those used for instant messaging and others with more functions, such as the downloading of emojis.

The CAC said the programmes collected data without consent, more information was collected than needed for operational purposes and that data was not deleted or revised in accordance with regulations.

Companies have 10 days to comply with the rules or face a fine. Beijing has been clamping down on the country’s vast “platform economy”, used for a whole range of e-commerce activities from banking to food delivery.

The crackdown started with last year’s shelving of Ant Group’s Sh3.8 trillion ($37 billion)  initial public offering (IPO) and has expanded across the sector, battering companies’ share prices.