China online service providers improve privacy protection

BEIJING — China's 10 largest online service providers have improved their privacy policies and made them more transparent to users, authorities said Sunday.

The 10 platforms include the popular messaging service WeChat, the Twitter-like Weibo, e-commerce giants Taobao and Jingdong, taxi-hailing service Didi and Baidu Map.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Standardization Administration Sunday announced the results of their latest assessment of the 10 platforms' privacy policy.

The authorities launched a probe into the platforms in late July in the hope of making them improve their privacy policies.

"All the platforms now explicitly state the rules they use in collecting and using users' personal information and seek user's explicit authorization," said Yang Jianjun, an expert involved in the assessment.

WeChat, Taobao and other platforms now provide a one-stop solution for users to withdraw their authorization. Users could also correct or delete their personal information, or unsubscribe services conveniently, according to Yang.

The service providers will continue to improve their privacy policy and the authorities will conduct random checks, Yang said.