Going global: Comparing Chinese mobile applications’ data and user privacy governance at home and abroad

Abstract

We examine and compare data and privacy governance by four China-based mobile applications and their international versions: Baidu, Toutiao and its international version TopBuzz, Douyin and its international version TikTok, and WeChat. Together, these four applications represent popular Chinese apps branching into diverse overseas markets such as Europe, Brazil, North America, and Southeast Asia. We first present an overview of the ownership, functions, business models and strategies of the reviewed apps. To study the app's interface design, we employ the walkthrough method to examine privacy features during the account registration and deletion stages in app usage. Lastly, we conducted content analysis of the terms of service and privacy policies to establish the app's data collection, storage, transfer, use, and disclosure measures. Our analysis showed variations across apps and within the Chinese and international-facing versions in their data and privacy governance in app design and policies. Baidu has the most unsatisfactory data and privacy protection measures, while ByteDance's TikTok/Douyin and TopBuzz/Toutiao offer more comprehensive user protection from different jurisdictions. Moreover, this paper highlights the role of platform owners (e.g., Google and Apple) in gatekeeping mobile app privacy standards and the role of the state in imposing a data protection framework on overseas versions of China-based mobile apps.

Examining embedded apparatuses of AI in Facebook and TikTok

“…To this end, forensic accounts of TikTok show some concerns about data collection, but acknowledge that the apps’ safeguards and policies “seem to cover enough ground for a user” (Neyaz et al 2020 : 56). Similarly, Jia and Ruan ( 2020 ) found that both TikTok and Douyin comply with privacy and data protection measures like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation in being attentive to users and policies from different geographical regions. Of course, the European Consumer Organization recently organized and filed complaints against TikTok with the European Commission, claiming that TikTok’s terms and conditions are unfair to content creators, that terms of data collection are unclear to children and teenagers, and that the platform fails to protect underage users from both harmful content and hidden forms of marketing by influencers (Ikeda 2021 ).…”

Rethinking Explicit Consent and Intimate Data: The Case of Menstruapps

“…27 Studying privacy policies and terms and conditions is one possible way of investigating software apps' data and privacy protection. See Sunyaev et al (2015), O'Laughlin et al ( 2019), Jia and Ruan (2020).…”

The geopolitics of ‘platforms’: the TikTok challenge

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