10 yuan can modify the positioning of friends circle？ Wechat strictly investigates the ＂micro-marketing＂ artifact

　　When you go out to play during the holidays, many people will send beautiful pictures in the circle of friends and add location positioning to "punch in", but what you didn’t expect is that this information may be false. Recently, some media exposed the news that "the lowest 10 yuan can modify the friend circle positioning service". According to the reporter’s investigation, some merchants on the e-commerce platform provide virtual positioning and photo service. Experts suggest that this kind of behavior not only has many security risks, but also may be suspected of breaking the law, so consumers should use it with caution.

　　10 yuan modifies the orientation of friends circle.

　　Buy software that can be used unlimited times.

　　The reporter searched on a well-known e-commerce platform and found that some sellers’ display pages read advertisements with the words "friends circle location", "anywhere in the world" and "pictures and videos are acceptable", while the prices for providing positioning modification services ranged from 10 yuan to 100 yuan, and some sellers sold nearly 2,000 copies a month. The reporter tried to place orders with multiple merchants and found that there are three main forms to modify the friend circle positioning service: single manual delivery, unlimited operation of software, and permanent use of hardware.

　　Among them, only 10 yuan and 20 yuan are needed for a single forwarding, and users need to edit the content of their friends circle first, and set it to "only visible to themselves" to tell the seller the required geographical location, and the seller will provide a QR code. After scanning, the user will allow the seller to remotely log in to his WeChat account and modify the location to post friends circle. A seller told reporters that after logging in, you can’t see the information column of the user’s friend list, but you can see all the circle of friends that the user posted before. Another seller directly asked the reporter for the account number and password to log in.

　　After the reporter raised security concerns, the seller recommended to buy plug-in software, which is more expensive, generally around 100 yuan. Users can download the APP and follow the tutorial sent by the seller, so they can modify the circle of friends indefinitely. At present, there are many such softwares on the market. In addition, users can also buy a hardware device like a charging head, which can directly change the position of the mobile phone by plugging it in, and then modify the positioning of any software on the mobile phone.

　　In addition to this virtual location service, some sellers also provide "high-end life photos of friends circle" materials, and play advertisements such as weekly updates and photos taken by professional photographers. It can be seen that the "fine decoration" of friends circle has now become a business.

　　The risk of privacy disclosure is high.

　　Sellers may be involved in "unfair competition"

　　Insiders pointed out that this kind of virtual positioning technology is not complicated, which is similar to providing a GPS sensor and changing the way for software to obtain location information from the GPS sensor that comes with the mobile phone. However, users will face great security risks, and service providers may also be suspected of committing crimes.

　　First of all, authorizing the seller to send a circle of friends will reveal personal privacy on the one hand, and on the other hand, the QR code with unknown sources is likely to read personal account information, causing property security risks.

　　In the investigation, the reporter found that some sellers also specifically indicated "for high-end Wechat business service". Party Xiaolin, a lawyer of Beijing Sanyou Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd., pointed out that Wechat business and purchasing groups are likely to be the main customer groups who pay for virtual location services. "There may be cases where the release is located abroad to prove that the goods sold are genuine foreign products, but in fact they are selling fakes and deceiving consumers."

　　Dang Xiaolin said that if the "high-end photos of life" and virtual positioning services provided by sellers on the e-commerce platform are used for commercial promotion and false publicity, it is suspected of violating the relevant provisions of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Advertising Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC). Once it constitutes unfair competition or false publicity, service providers and Wechat business Daigou will face administrative penalties such as fines and civil liabilities such as stopping infringement and compensating losses.

　　Wechat response

　　Require the e-commerce platform to remove related services.

　　In this regard, WeChat Security Center issued a public response through Tencent Technology account on the 11th, saying that virtual positioning is a plug-in developed by group control technology, which is usually packaged as a "micro-marketing" artifact, and the use of plug-ins is a clear violation. In response, the WeChat team said that this plug-in software not only destroyed the ecological balance and normal operation of the WeChat platform, but also provided convenient conditions for malicious marketing behavior and caused harassment to normal users.

　　The WeChat team said that since the beginning of this year, WeChat has been strengthening the crackdown on WeChat plug-in software, focusing on governance, and has repeatedly publicized relevant crackdowns. For all accounts that have been complained by users and verified as using plug-ins, WeChat will impose penalties such as restricting functions (adding friends, greeting people nearby, etc.) and restricting login according to the relevant national laws and regulations, Tencent WeChat Software License and Service Agreement and WeChat Personal Account Usage Specification, and according to the degree of violation. For those who violate the rules for many times, the punishment will be aggravated.

　　In addition, the WeChat team also called on users not to use such plug-in services, and not to give their WeChat accounts, passwords and verification codes to strangers, so as not to bring many risks such as privacy and property security. According to Xinhua News Agency