Catering firms warned against collection of unnecessary personal information
A law promotion event is jointly hosted by Shanghai's cybersecurity and commerce authorities and market watchdog.
Efforts have been beefed up against excessive collection of unnecessary personal information from consumers, which has been widely detected in a number of catering businesses in the city, according to Shanghai's cybersecurity authorities and market regulators.
Combined measures such as law promotion, education, inspection, law enforcement and media exposure are being taken to combat the violations of excessive collection of personal information, frequently tricking consumers into providing irrelevant personal information or compulsorily requesting such information from diners when they scan QR codes to order food and drinks, authorities said.
The violations have been widely found at a number of catering firms in the city based on tips-off and investigation, officials revealed.
On Tuesday, a law promotion event was jointly hosted by Shanghai's cybersecurity and commerce authorities and market watchdog, bringing together about 80 chain restaurants and beverage stores, involving 16,000 outlets.
Attendees were ordered to conduct self-examination based on law and regulations on the protection of personal information and consumer rights and interests, to minimize the collection of personal information based on their business scope, and to stop excessive collection.
More law promotion events will be held in the future, officials said.
Inspections on major catering businesses in the city would be conducted in the coming weeks and those failing to fix the problems would face administrative penalties, Shanghai's cybersecurity authorities said.
Last month, cybersecurity authorities and market supervisors collared the SimplyThai, Shake Shack and Starbucks chains related to excessive collection of user information.
The three brands were accused of illegally collecting personal consumer information by their failure to provide an option for consumers to refuse to provide data such as names, birthdays, addresses, ID card numbers and even bank accounts.
