Major App Takedowns: Soul Knight and Others Removed by Cyberspace Administration for Privacy Violations

Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) took decisive action against 135 apps for malicious practices, including forced data collection and deceptive user tracking. Among them, 55 apps were removed for serious violations of the Personal Information Protection Law, such as forcing access to unnecessary permissions, sharing precise location data without consent, and harvesting contact lists.

The news sparked intense discussion. Regarding the mention of 'Soul Knight', players were quick to clarify that it wasn't the legitimate version from developer ChillyRoom, but rather a 'knock-off' version published by LiuHua Network. The official game remains available on platforms like TapTap. Meanwhile, many users expressed strong resentment toward the pervasive 'shake-to-trigger' ads—a practice where apps launch advertisements based on minor physical movement—and slammed 'system cleaning' apps as typical privacy-invading 'permission-hogs'.