Academic database fined for illegal use of info
By Cao Yin | China Daily | Updated: 2023-09-07 08:48
China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the country's largest online academic database, has been fined 50 million yuan ($6.9 million) for illegal collection of personal information, according to a decision issued by the nation's top internet regulator.
The Cyberspace Administration of China announced the decision on its website on Wednesday after an investigation, noting that the punishment was made in line with the Cybersecurity Law, the Personal Information Protection Law and the Administrative Penalty Law.
The administration said that 14 apps operated by CNKI had been found to have illegally collected personal data. Some did not get users' permission before the collection or did not disclose the rules of the collection, while some failed to provide users with an account cancellation option or did not delete personal information after users canceled their accounts.
"We'll continue to coordinate development and security and adhere to the law-based cyberspace governance, with stricter law enforcement in areas such as cybersecurity, data security and personal information protection, so as to create a sound development environment for enterprises and safeguard national security, data security and people's legitimate rights," it added.
In June last year, CNKI, which holds large amounts of personal information and important data on key industries like telecommunication, transportation and healthcare, was placed under a security review by the cyberspace regulator.
Earlier, the State Administration for Market Regulation investigated the pay-to-read database for suspected monopoly. At the end of last year, CNKI was fined 87.6 million yuan for monopolistic behavior.
The market regulator said that since 2014, CNKI has abused its dominant market position to sell its database services at increasingly high prices. The company has also restricted academic journals' and universities' ability to authorize the use of data to third parties through the signing of exclusive cooperation agreements.
