Dissecting Privacy Management of Apps from Regional Comparison Perspective

Mobile applications have surged globally, becoming integral to digital life, with China and the U.S. standing out as two of the largest and most influential markets. In response to rising privacy concerns, major regions have enacted data protection laws, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the United States’ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). However, differences in language, policy structure, and regulatory enforcement make it difficult to systematically assess and compare privacy compliance across regions. To address these challenges, we introduce a three-step framework: (1) Transformer-based translation to standardize multilingual privacy policies; (2) NLP-driven app classification with consensus modeling; and (3) static analysis of app permissions for policy-behavior consistency. Analyzing 18,077 apps from China and 8,270 from the U.S., we find Chinese apps collect $40 \%$ more non-essential data. Furthermore, $45.76 \%$ of Chinese apps and 35.4% U.S. show inconsistencies between declared policies and actual permission use. Our findings highlight systemic disparities and provide actionable insights for developers, regulators, and users navigating regional privacy expectations.