The Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission has named this issue and conducted secret investigations on 140 shopping malls, including parking fees and other related issues

To pay parking fees, you must pay attention to the official account, or register members and provide a lot of information? Recently, the topic of excessive collection of personal information through parking fees in shopping malls has become a hot topic. On the basis of a small-scale investigation in the early stage, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission conducted secret investigations on 140 shopping malls in 29 city level commercial centers and 45 regional level commercial centers, and found that 27 shopping malls had the problem of forcing consumers to join members and demanding personal information from consumers.

27 shopping malls, including Aegean Shopping Park, Sun and Moon Center, BFC Bund Financial Center, and Bailian Youyi City, have forced consumers to add members and provide personal information such as name and phone number during the process of scanning and paying parking fees.

Six shopping malls under Bailian require a mobile phone number to log in to Bailian membership in order to pay parking fees. Three shopping malls under Wanda forced consumers to provide personal information for the reason of handling Wanda membership cards after consumers used Alipay to scan the code.

33 shopping malls, such as Heshenghui, Ruiou Department Store, Huanmao iapm, Guojin Center, etc., use consumers' ignorance of official account menu operations and the urgency of exiting the parking lot to induce consumers to pay attention to their official account.

In addition, 18 shopping malls forced consumers to provide personal information such as WeChat and Alipay nicknames and avatars in the process of scanning codes to pay parking fees. Many of the shopping malls use third-party services such as "fast parking".

In response, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission pointed out that according to relevant laws and regulations, shopping malls should provide consumers with a QR code that allows them to directly access the parking fee payment page, and prominently mark it as "directly scan the code to pay the parking fee". Shopping malls should also post QR codes for "directly scanning the code to pay parking fees" in the main passages and parking lots for consumers to easily access.

When shopping malls provide consumers with QR codes of registered members or official account, they should not display misleading prompts such as "parking fees". If the mall posts the QR code of member or official account in the name of parking fee discount, it must also post the QR code of "directly scanning the code to pay parking fee".

In response to the discovered issues, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission has transferred the clues to the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration and the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, and included them in the "Bright Sword Pujiang" action currently being carried out throughout the city.

Just this morning, law enforcement officers from the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration and the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau conducted an on-site inspection of the relevant commercial districts in Yangpu District. The inspection found that there were problems in Youyicheng parking lot, such as inducing users to register members, paying attention to the official account, and forcing consumers to agree to the privacy policy of third-party enterprises with the member registration and login function; The Heshenghui parking lot has problems in inducing users to pay attention to the official account and forcing consumers to register members. Law enforcement officers should point out problems to the responsible persons of two shopping malls and demand rectification, and carry out on-site legal education.

This afternoon, the Shanghai Municipal Cyberspace Administration and the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, together with the Municipal State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Municipal Commission of Commerce, and the Yangpu Cyberspace Administration, held talks with two enterprises in accordance with the law. The interview requires that Youyi City and Heshenghui comprehensively rectify the excessive collection of personal information during the parking payment process, and take necessary measures to ensure that the handling of consumer personal information activities complies with laws and administrative regulations, effectively preventing the risk of information leakage.

The relevant person in charge of the Municipal Cyberspace Administration pointed out that when shopping malls provide parking services, consumers have the obligation to pay the parking fees according to the agreement. Operators of shopping malls or parking lots force or induce consumers to join shopping mall members or pay attention to official account before paying parking fees, which is excessive collection of consumer personal information and violates the relevant provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law. Mall or parking lot operators should promptly release a "pure version" parking payment QR code and prominently mark it with "scan the code directly, pay to leave" to ensure that no personal information is collected. If the store membership code or official account QR code is posted in the name of parking fee discount, member points, etc., there must be sufficient prompts and only personal information related to relevant services must be collected to effectively protect consumers' right to know, right to choose, and legitimate rights and interests of personal information.

The heads of two companies stated that due to inadequate understanding of legal provisions such as the Personal Information Protection Law and the Methods for Determining the Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information by APPs, problems have arisen. The next step will be to actively cooperate with regulatory authorities in accordance with the requirements of the interview, conduct self inspection and rectification, and implement the "pure version" parking payment QR code work requirements as soon as possible.