China: app stores by Apple, other companies, must track user activity for 60 days

 Apple’s China woes continue. App stores operators such as the Cupertino, California-based company must establish the identity of users, while monitoring and reporting postings that contain banned content, reports Bloomberg. The legitimacy of developers who post apps for download must also be verified, according to new rules posted on the Cyberspace Administration of China’s website.

All app stores and providers are now required to keep a record of users’ activity for 60 days. The regulations mark one of the most comprehensive efforts so far to oversee mobile applications, which are mushrooming in popularity alongside smartphone use. Bloomberg says they’re part of a broader effort by President Xi Jinping’s government to clamp down on content deemed sensitive.

Earlier this month Apple’s China branch was fined 50,000 yuan ($7,595) for “serious dishonest acts” such as suspected tax evasion. Also this month, Shenzhen Baili, a Chinese company won a Beijing patent office ruling, that the the iPhone 6 copied its own Baili 100C smartphone (although Shenzhen Baili is apparently no longer operating).

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