New Personal Data Privacy Law Passed in China to Protect Online Users

China’s National People’s Congress on Friday formally handed a regulation designed to guard on-line consumer knowledge privateness and can implement the coverage beginning November 1, based on state-media outlet Xinhua.

The regulation’s passage completes one other pillar within the nation’s efforts to manage our on-line world and is predicted so as to add extra compliance necessities for firms within the nation.

China has instructed its tech giants to make sure higher safe storage of consumer knowledge, amid public complaints about mismanagement and misuse which have resulted in consumer privateness violations.

The regulation states that dealing with of private info should have clear and cheap goal and shall be restricted to the “minimum scope necessary to achieve the goals of handling” knowledge.

It additionally lays out situations for which firms can gather private knowledge, together with acquiring a person’s consent, in addition to laying out pointers for making certain knowledge safety when knowledge is transferred outdoors the nation.

The regulation additionally requires handlers of private info to designate a person answerable for private info safety, and requires handlers to conduct periodic audits to make sure compliance with the regulation.

The second draft of the Personal Information Protection regulation was launched publicly in late April.

The Personal Information Protection Law, together with the Data Security Law, mark two main rules set to manipulate China’s web sooner or later.

The Data Security regulation, to be carried out on September 1, units a framework for firms to categorise knowledge based mostly on its financial worth and relevance to China’s nationwide safety.

The Personal Information Protection Law, in the meantime, recollects Europe’s GDPR in setting a framework to make sure consumer privateness.

Both legal guidelines would require firms in China to look at their knowledge storage and processing practices to make sure they’re compliant, based on specialists.

The legal guidelines arrive amid a broader regulatory tightening on trade from Chinese regulators, which have rattled firms massive and small.

In July, China’s Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), its high our on-line world regulator, introduced it will launch a probe into Chinese ride-haling big Didi Global Inc for allegedly violating consumer privateness.

On Tuesday, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) handed a sweeping algorithm geared toward enhancing truthful competitors, banning practices akin to pretend on-line opinions.

In January, the government-backed China Consumers Association issued an announcement criticizing tech firms for “bullying” customers into making purchases and promotions.

Since then, regulators have routinely reprimanded firms and apps for violating consumer privateness.

On Wednesday, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology accused 43 apps for illegally transferring consumer knowledge and known as on them to make rectifications earlier than August 24.

© Thomson Reuters 2021