Seek users' consent to analyze their data

WeChat had 938 million users by the end of March, while Alipay had 520 million by the end of 2017. Their respective developers, Alibaba and Tencent, are both tech giants with huge influences not only in China but also in many other parts of world.

But that's no excuse for them to violate users' rights and privacy. WeChat can access users' daily chat records, while Alipay has our consumption records. If either set of information gets leaked, it could cause huge convenience to the users.

That's why Alibaba and Tencent are obliged to strictly protect users' privacy and rights. And before analyzing user's data, the two companies should obtain users' consent in a legal, proper way.

Chen Liteng, an analyst at a Hangzhou-based e-commerce research center