Taobao app Photo: VCG

 In an evaluation conducted by the China Consumers Association (CCA), 20 out of 50 sampled applications made it hard for users to cancel accounts, according to a report released by the CCA on Tuesday.

According to the report, some applications have not specified cancellation conditions, some have excessive conditions for cancellation, including China's top e-commerce platform Taobao and online takeout platform Eleme, while others have complex cancellation processes such as Tencent Video and China Southern Airlines.

Moreover, accounts from some applications can be cancelled following manual review, but with long processing times, in some cases exceeding 15 working days. In some instances, accounts even cannot be cancelled through the application itself. 

In addition, 5 applications have been flagged for making it difficult to unsubscribe from automated recommendations, accounting for 10 percent in this evaluation.

The report showed that applications within online car-hailing and takeout catering have more problems than those in housing rental and sale, with no problem found in the evaluation.

The CCA suggested that consumers pay attention to a platform’s ability to protect the security of personal information, and illegal handling of personal information. When users do not allow the operator processing their information, they should actively exercise the right to "withdraw consent" to request the operator to stop processing or delete their information.

The CCA said that all applications with problems should review internal processes and make adjustments in accordance with laws governing personal information protection and network security. Moreover, the administration will summon senior staff from offending apps to provide suggestions on how to address issues flagged in the report.