The form, reason and regulation of mandatory "user consent" of consumer Apps
Wen Yuheng1,2,Yu Meiting1
1.Faculty of Law, Xiangtan University; 2.Hunan Data Governance and Smart Justice Research Center
Abstract： With the development of the Internet economy, the traditional offline economy has shifted significantly online, and the App platform has become an important tool for users to consume on the Internet. The "Strong Platform-Weak User" imbalance pattern persists in the Internet domain. Consumer App takes advantage of its network technology to force users facing the information gap, in explicit or implicit form to agree to the user agreement, so as to achieve the purpose of obtaining consumer personal information and avoiding legal risks and so on. Forcing "user consent" not only violates the principle of equality and voluntariness, but also seriously violates the user′s right to information, choice, and other rights, such coercive behavior urgently need to be regulated. On the one hand, we should regulate the user agreement and balance the status between consumer App and user; On the other hand, promote user data property, improve user bargaining ability, increase the cost of platform avoidance. Regulatory strategies can promote the consumer App platform to fulfill its statutory compliance obligations such as protecting personal information and data security, balance the relationship between the rights and obligations of the consumer App platform and users, and move the App platform from "form compliance" to "substantive compliance".
Key words : consumer Apps; user consent; overt coercion; implicit coercion; regulatory strategies; substantive compliance
