### 2. Consumer affairs administration in relation to telecommunication services

MIC launched the Study Group on the Safety and Security of ICT Services in February 2014 to study measures on issues that are expected to require mid-to-long term systematic measures, with a focus on issues being confronted in the enhancement of consumer protection rules. The Study Group looked specifically at (1) revisions and enhancements to consumer protection rules, (2) approaches to protecting and educating young people who will use ICT to create the 2020s, and (3) addressing issues affecting the development of ICT services (approaches to service fees and other service provision conditions). In response to (2), the Report from the Youth Internet Session Chairman was presented in July 2014 and regarding (1) and (3), the Study Group finalized a report in December 2014 that included recommendations for revisions to the Telecommunications Business Act and other related legislation and promotion of SIM unlocking by carriers. The Study Group is continuing to examine safe and secure usage environments for ICT services.

## (1) Correcting sales and solicitation actions for telecommunications services, and revisions and enhancements to consumer protection rules

Study Group on the Safety and Security of ICT Services report recommended the institutionalizing of explanation and delivery of documentation obligations for telecommunications services based on the principle of suitability, the prohibition of misstatements concerning important matters, the introduction of a system for canceling contracts soon after they are made (This system does not apply to devices and other goods sold at stores. What services it will be applied to is still under study.), the prohibition of repeated solicitations, and the systemization of agency supervision. Based on these recommendations, MIC submitted a bill to partially amend the Telecommunications Business Act and other legislation to the 189th session of the National Diet. The bill was passed and promulgated in May 2015. MIC is now moving ahead with preparations for putting the amendments into force.

## (2) Initiatives on advertising indications of communication speeds and other service specifications

With the rapid proliferation of smartphones and other devices, MIC has received a mounting number of complaints about service quality, especially about communication speeds where large gaps exist between actual speeds and advertised best effort speeds. Because of a need for reasonable indications of service specifications to allow users to make appropriate service choices, MIC launched the Study Group on Approaches to Internet Service Quality Measurements in November 2013 on the matter of measuring and indicating communication speeds. The Study Group finished its first report in April 2014.

## (3) Establishing usage environments for youth

In view of the advancement of Internet use by youth on a global scale, MIC developed the Internet Literacy Assessment indicator for Students (ILAS) based on the opinions and recommendations from experts. ILAS accurately gauges the Internet literacy levels young people need while making adjustments for international developments and trends. The test was given to first-year high school students (approximately 3,700 students) throughout Japan between June and July 2014 and the results of the test were announced in September that year. Among the various Internet literacy skills, the test stresses the ability to cope with dangers and threats on the Internet and the skills needed to judge whether information is appropriate while keeping ethical considerations in mind.

Seeing the tremendous growth of smartphones among youth, and in consideration of the nature of security on smartphones, which is different from security on conventional mobile phones, it is increasingly important to not only raise the literacy of young people but also raise the literacy of their guardians and teachers.

MIC, with the Regional Bureaus of Telecommunications and the Okinawa Office of Telecommunications at the fore, is unfolding comprehensive public awareness activities, such as constructing promotion platforms to unify regional stakeholders and holding briefing sessions. The goal of these activities is to further the establishment of systems in which active stakeholders from all over each region can coordinate and carry out dissemination and public awareness activities to raise the literacy of young people, guardians, and teachers in their respective region.

## (4) Handling personal and user information

### a. Handling user information in the smartphone age

MIC announced the Smartphone Privacy Initiative II (SPI II) in September 2013, a series of recommendations aiming for the private-sector-led establishment of mechanisms by which third parties verify, on both the operational and technical sides, apps as a means of ensuring that apps handle user information appropriately.

Based on SPI II, MIC set up the Task Force to Promote the Usage and Verification of Smartphone App Privacy Policies in December 2013. The Task Force studied the current state of the creation and display of privacy policies for apps and examined the technical issues needed to be overcome in order to implement third-party verifications. MIC released the results of the Task Force's work as the Smartphone Privacy Outlook (SPO) for FY 2013 and beyond. In FY 2014, the Task Force continued to monitor the state of the creation and display of privacy policies for apps and ran verification tests ahead of building a third-party verification system. The results of this work were announced in April 2015 as the Smartphone Privacy Outlook II (SPO II).