According to Gamingdeputy news on April 27, People’s Daily reposted an article from the Rule of Law Daily, “Does the next app need the consent of the mobile phone manufacturer? “, the article describes the problems encountered during the installation of the App from the perspectives of multiple users. Some lawyers believe thatThe manufacturer intercepts external links and is suspected of constituting monopolistic behavior.
Risk warnings pop up repeatedly, and downloading and installation are blocked many times.
Ms. Li wanted to download and install the App from third-party channels, but encountered many restrictions such as security risk prompts and system password input.
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Taking Mr. Guo from Chaoyang District, Beijing, as an example when installing mobile games, he will encounter the problem of repeated pop-ups of risk warnings and blocked download and installation many times. Gamingdeputy attaches the installation restrictions as follows:
1. Search and download a mobile game app in the browser
2. After clicking “Download Now”, a security reminder will pop up on the page “In order to provide more secure application services and protect your rights and interests, it is recommended to give priority to installing applications that have passed the security inspection of the application market that comes with the phone.”
3. Before clicking “Continue Installation”, you also need to click to confirm “I understand that this application has not been tested and may be risky. You can set whether to move it to the 'Application Control Center'”.
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4. The reporter clicked the prompt button and immediately jumped to the “Settings” page. At the same time, a pop-up window popped up with two options: “Install and move into the 'Application Control Center'” and “Install directly”.
5. If you select “Install and move to the 'Application Control Center'”, an option “Automatically move to the 'Application Control Center' next time” pops up. After clicking install, you still need to enter the lock screen password. The page shows that after the installation is successful, there is also a prompt to “enhance protection” and a note that “after turning it on, only applications that have been tested by the mobile phone's own application market are supported for installation.”
Manufacturers intercept external links, suspected of constituting monopolistic behavior
Cheng Xiao, deputy dean and professor of Tsinghua University Law School, said,
Mobile phone manufacturers provide hardware and software services. If they cannot ensure fair treatment of applications on the market and set up obstacles for consumers to install software for their own benefit, it will lead to unfair competition in the digital service market and form a monopoly.
Manufacturers use “significant risk” warnings and other means to make consumers fearful of downloading and installing apps from other channels, which infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of other application providers.
Xu Jingyuan, a lawyer at Beijing Dongwei Law Firm, said
Some mobile phone manufacturers use settings to darken the download and installation buttons and prompts such as “This application comes from external sources, has not passed security testing, and is malicious” to prevent users from downloading from third-party platforms and divert traffic to their own app stores. This not only constitutes a violation of third-party The infringement of the download platform has seriously infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of users, and is suspected of violating multiple policies and regulations.
In February 2023, in response to this behavior of mobile phone manufacturers “separating themselves into territories” to obtain traffic benefits, the “Notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Further Improving Mobile Internet Application Service Capabilities” issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology clearly requires ensuring informed consent for installation. Recommending apps to users for downloading should follow the principles of openness and transparency, truly, accurately and completely state necessary information such as developers and operators, product features, privacy policies, permission lists, etc., and provide obvious cancellation options at the same time. Downloads can only be made after the user's confirmation and consent. Installation to effectively protect users’ right to know and choose. It is not allowed to deceive and mislead users into downloading and installing through methods such as “stealing and replacing others”; achieving convenient uninstallation.