Shanghai's 'Qinlin' Access Control System Under Scrutiny for Privacy and Advertising Issues
TapTechNews August 2nd news, according to the WeChat **** of Shanghai TV Station's News Perspective yesterday, the Qinlin access control system was previously exposed that remote door opening requires downloading an App, and frequently pops up advertisements during use, causing concerns among homeowners about the collection and use of personal information. After the above problems were exposed, the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration stepped in to investigate.
It is known that this access control system initially entered the community under the banner of free equipment. Through investigation, the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration initially found that the Qinlin App has multiple matters that violate the Personal Information Protection Law.
Xia Sheng, a first-class director-level cadre in the Network Law Enforcement Supervision Office of the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration, said: According to the technical detection situation, it is found that this App first has the problem of excessive collection of personal information; second, it does not explicitly inform the purpose, method and scope of collection and use of personal information.
The Personal Information Protection Law actually has two most important basic principles, one is called the principle of minimum necessity principle, and the other is the principle of informed consent. The Cyberspace Administration of the Municipal Party Committee, in conjunction with the Municipal Communications Administration Bureau, the Municipal Housing Administration Bureau, and the Cyberspace Administration of Jing'an District, has conducted joint interviews with relevant enterprises. If there is ineffective rectification and repeated failure to correct, we will, together with the Municipal Communications Administration Bureau, carry out disposal and punishment as the case may be in accordance with the law.
And the main profit mode of the Qinlin App is advertising placement on the device side provided free of charge after entering the community. On Qinlin's own public marketing plan, user profiling and targeted advertising delivery is regarded as the main selling point. When Qinlin's access control equipment enters the community, homeowners will be required to download the software and enter personal information. Not only that, in some communities in Shanghai, the face information of homeowners even needs to be entered into mobile phones to open the access control.
The staff of Qinlin said that if you want to use it without advertisements, you have to pay to buy a membership, and the company depends on the advertising revenue. If the advertisements are turned off, the company would have gone bankrupt long ago.
At present, the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration has jointly conducted interviews with the Qinlin App with multiple departments. If the enterprise fails to complete the rectification, it may face administrative penalties or removal for disposal.
According to TapTechNews' previous report, in June this year, Ms. Yang, a citizen in Shanghai, reported that the new access control system in the community where she lives has been changed, and every time the door opening App is opened, a shake to open advertisement pops up, and as soon as the hand slightly moves, it jumps to a shopping platform. The traditional kind of static boot screen advertisement can pass after waiting for a few sec onds. Now I have to keep my hand still, otherwise it will jump to another platform immediately.
The jump methods such as shake to open and twist to open can be realized by monitoring various angles and accelerations of the mobile phone through the mobile phone gyroscope. The technical threshold cost is not high, and the App operator can access advertising for profit at a lower cost, and the advertising placer can obtain exposure through this way, but the user experience is completely ignored here.
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The 'shake to open' jump advertisement keeps happening, and a woman in Shanghai said that to open the unit door of the community, multiple Apps need to be opened continuously