A total of 1,048 mobile apps collect data without users’ knowledge or consent, China News Service reported Thursday, citing a quarterly inspection by cyber police in the southern Guangdong province.

Many apps screened were found to be collecting a wide range of information from people’s phones, including reading text messages, accessing calendars, and secretly recording conversations without authorization, according to the report. While streaming platform Kugou Music was caught accessing users’ calendars and contact lists, the app for the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper was found to be secretly recording users’ geographic locations, the inspectors found.

The Guangdong cyber police instructed “affiliated authorities” to “rectify the problem” and vowed to further strengthen monitoring efforts to curb such dubious practices.

With an increasing public awareness of data privacy, China is taking measures to prevent infringement, and a new data security policy was proposed in May. Last year, the China Consumers Association found that over 90% of the apps it surveyed — including those of popular social platforms like Weibo and WeChat — were guilty of over-collecting user data. (Image: VCG)