China: China Monthly Data Protection Update - June 2022

Legislation

Four Departments Jointly Issue Implementation Measures on Sealing of Minors' Criminal Records to Protect Privacy of Minors

On May 30, 2022, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued the Implementation Measures on the Sealing of Minors' Criminal Records. The detailed regulations stipulate the definition and scope of juvenile criminal records, the circumstances of sealing, the subjects and procedures of sealing, the subjects and application conditions of inquiry, the subjects and procedures of providing inquiry services, the conditions and consequences of lifting the sealing, confidentiality obligations and related responsibilities, etc., which basically solve the main problems encountered in the sealing of juvenile criminal records at present.¹

Shanghai Passes Legislation to Protect Personal Information Collected for Epidemic Prevention

On May 24，Shanghai voted to adopt the Decision of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on Further Promoting and Securing the Construction of "Unified Network Management" for Urban Operations.The Decision stipulates that the collection and processing of personal information in relation to epidemic prevention and control during information verification shall comply with the provisions of relevant laws and regulations on personal information protection. The collected personal information shall only be used for epidemic prevention and control, and no organisation or individual shall disclose it.²

CBIRC Issues Measures on Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests by Banking and Insurance Institutions (Draft for Comments), Strengthen Protection of Consumers' Personal Information

On May 19, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission ("CBIRC") released the Measures on Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests by Banking and Insurance Institutions (Draft for Comment) to solicit public opinions, which sets out a special chapter "Chapter 6 Protection of Consumers' Information Security" to protect the information security of consumers.³

NDRC Leads Formulation of Basic System Documents for Data Elements

On May 17, the the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference ("CPPCC") held a special conference in Beijing, focusing on "promoting the sustainable and healthy development of the digital economy" . Lin Nianxiu, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC"), gave a brief response to the suggestions made by CPPCC members at the meeting, focusing on four aspects: forward deployment of new infrastructure, deeply tapping the value of digital elements, accelerating digital transformation, and exploring the perfect policy environment. On the issue of deeply mining the value of digital elements and expanding the development space of the digital economy, according to the deployment, the NDRC is taking the lead in formulating the basic system documents for data elements.⁴

CPPCC Members: Build Exchange System of Data Elements and Speed up Legislation on Data Property Rights

On May 17, the CPPCC held a conference with the theme "Promoting the Sustainable and Healthy Development of the Ditigtal Economy". Several CPPCC members spoke on the development of the digital economy. The speeches focused on two major issues including how to build a system for exchanging data elements and speed up the legislation on data property rights.⁵

Heilongjiang Province Issues Regulations on Promoting the Development and Application of Big Data in Heilongjiang Province

On May 13, the 33th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th People's Congress of Heilongjiang Province adopted the Regulations on Promoting the Development and Application of Big Data in Heilongjiang Province, which will come into force from July 1, 2022. It aims to regulate the development and application of big data, promote the development of big data industry, and better serve the comprehensive and all-round revitalization of Heilongjiang Province.⁶

Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee Holds Seminar on Shaanxi Province Big Data Development and Application Regulation

On May 9, the People's Congress Standing Committee of Shananxi Province held a legislative seminar regarding the Shaanxi Province Big Data Development and Application Regulation. The Deputy Director of the Standing Committee, Jiang Feng, attended and spoke on the seminar. Jiang Feng pointed out that enacting the Big Data Development and Application Regulations is an important legislative project of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress in 2021, as well as an important legislative initiative to promote the high-quality development of Shaanxi Province.⁷

Enforcement Authority

China's First "Personal Data Center White Paper" Releases

On May 26, 2022, China International Big Data Industry Expo held the first "Personal Data Center" theme forum. During the forum, China's first Personal Data Center White Paper was officially released. The White Paper covers the basic concept, technical composition and application scenarios of personal data center, and provides a reference for the path to promote the development of the new industry.⁸

Shenzhen to Build New Data Trading Platform - Cultivate Five Well-known Cross-border Data Merchants

On May 16, Shenzhen officially adopted the Shenzhen Work Plan on Development of the Data Trade, which plan to establish a "five-in-one" new data trading platform. A data trade company will be registered as the main operator of the data trading platform. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, a global data trading market hub will be initially set up, about five well-known cross-border data merchants will be created, and more than 100 small and medium-sized data merchants with technical advantages and special applications will be cultivated.⁹

14th Five-Year Plan for Bio-economic Development of NDRC: Promote Health Data Sharing and Development

On May 10, the NDRC issued the 14th Five-Year Plan for Bio-economic Development. It requires to promote data sharing and realize the interconnection of health status data and active health product data.¹⁰

Beijing Digital Economy Promotion Regulation (Draft for Comments) Released - Encourage Market Players to Trade Data

On May 7, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, together with relevant departments, issued the Beijing Digital Economy Promotion Regulation (Draft for Comments) to solicit public opinions. It not only proposes support initiatives to the various types of enterprises, market players in relation to the digital economy, but also promotes the development of digital economy innovation by institutional optimization.¹¹

MIIT: Strengthen Personal Information Protection Through "Double List".

On May 5, the person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ("MIIT") said that MIIT would carry out actions to improve the perception of information and communication services, and urge major Internet enterprises to establish a "double list" for personal information protection. This indicates that personal information will be more strictly protected.¹²

Enforcement Cases

Real Estate Sales Office in Henan Fined RMB 200,000 for Using "Face Recognition" to Collect Personal Information Without Consent

On May 27, 2022, the Administration for Market Regulation of Yuzhou, Henan Province, issued a press release, stating that during its enforcement actions against infringement of consumers' personal information, the administration investigated and dealt with a case of infringement of consumers' face recognition information. A real estate salese office in Yuzhou used "face recognition" technology to collect consumers' personal information without authorization and was fined RMB 200,000.¹³

CVERC Reports 12 APPs with Problem of Collecting Personal Information Beyond Scope

On May 25, National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center ("CVERC") released the news that 12 mobile applications were recently found to have non-compliance behaviors concerning privacy, which violated the relevant provisions of the Cybersecurity Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, suspected of collecting personal privacy information beyond the legal scope.¹⁴

Jiangsu Provincial CPC Reports 14 New Energy Vehicle Enterprises for Involving Improper Use of Personal Information

On May 19, the Consumer Protection Commission of Jiangsu Province released the Survey Report on Unfair Format Terms in the New Energy Vehicle Industry. The survey collected a total of 47 agreements from 14 new energy vehicle enterprises and sorted out a total of 15 unfair format clauses in 10 aspects, among which the problem rate of 10 vehicle enterprises such as BYD, Great Wall, SAIC-GM-Wuling and Tesla was over 46%, and the problem rate of Weimar was as high as 60%. The unfair format clauses include: the collection of personal information is not compliant, e.g. consumers are required to give general consent; improper use of personal information and lack of consumer protection of personal information; the agreed response time is too long, resulting in that it is difficult to meet the actual needs of consumers, etc.¹⁵

Guangdong Consumers Commission: Consumption Records are Personal Information, YY Live Constitutes Infringement by Refusal to Provide Records to Consumers

On May 19, after receiving a complaint, the Guangdong Provincial Consumers Commission contacted YY Live platform and requested the platform to assist Mr. Zou to verify his personal account information, but the customer service of YY Live refused to fulfill its legal obligations on the grounds that the account information was personal and the company could only cooperate with the public security department's investigation. The Commission opines that Mr. Zou's consumption records on YY platform are his personal information, and YY platform used reasons such as "only cooperating with the public security department to investigate" to get out of the way, which obviously violates the consumer's right to know. ¹⁶

CVERC Reports 18 APPs with Problem of Collecting Personal Information Beyond Scope

On May 12, CVERC released the news that 18 mobile applications were recently found to have non-compliance behaviors concerning privacy, which violated the relevant provisions of the Cybersecurity Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, suspected of collecting personal information beyond the scope. ¹⁷

CAC Report Center Releases Statistics on the Acceptance and Handling of Network Infringement Reported to Main Commercial Platforms in April

On May 11, Illegal and Undesirable Information Reporting Center of Cyberspace Administration of China ("CAC") released the statistics on the acceptance and handling of the network infringement reported to the main commercial platforms in April 2022. Weibo, TikTok, Baidu, Tencent, Zhihu, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou, Douban, Netease, Sina, Sohu and other major commercial platforms received a total of 439,600 reports on network infringement such as leaking personal privacy, insult and abuse, defamation, etc.¹⁸

Ministry of Public Security: 9,800+ Cases Re. Infringement of Personal Information Investigated in 2021

On May 7, the Ministry of Public Security held a press conference, the Ministry of Public Security spokesman Li Guozhong said that during the "Clear Net 2021" special operation, in-depth implementation of the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, a total of more than 9,800 cases regarding infringement of citizens' personal information were investigated and 17,000 suspects were arrested.¹⁹

Courts Litigation

China's First Data Resource Court Established

On May 18, 2022, Wenzhou Ouhai District People's Court Data Resources Court was officially established, which is the first special court in China to receive data resources cases as the core business.²⁰

Leak of Minors Information in Epidemic - Procuratorates Protect Personal Information via Public Interest Litigation Procedures

On May 10, to implemente the Personal Information Protection Law and strengthen the desensitization of information, procuratorates in many places sent pre-litigation procuratorial suggestions on administrative public interest litigation to their district health committees, to cut off the chain of interests on illegal sale of minors' personal information.²¹

First Web Crawler Case Re. Short Video Platform Decided

On May 10, China's first case regarding web crawler in the field of short video platform was decided in the People's Court of Liangxi District, Wuxi City. The court held that the defendant Ding, together with others, provided a program specifically designed to invade computer information system. Such behavior has constituted the crime of invading the computer information system program since the circumstances are serious. The court sentenced Ding to one year and six months in prison, suspended for two years, and a fine of RMB 30,000. At the same time, Ding was prohibited from engaging in Internet-related business activities during the probationary period. ²²

Public Hearing Held Re. First Non-prosecution Case on Data Compliance

On April 28, Haiputuo District Procuratorate held non-prosecution public hearings on the case that Z Network Technology Co. Ltd. illegally accessed to computer information system data. The hearing review the assessment of the compliance, social harm and whether the case can be handled without prosecution. On May 10, after deliberations, stakeholders considered that the data compliance rectification is in place, agreed not to prosecute the company and its relevant personnel. The case is the first non-prosecution case on data compliance in China.²³

Wife Installs Locator in Husband's Car – Pays RMB 2,000 for Infringing Husband's Privacy

On May 5, Ms. Lu in Beijing was ordered to pay her husband RMB 2,000 as the compensation by the court for violating her husband's privacy. Mr. Liu and Ms. Lu were a couple. Ms. Lu privately installed a locator at the exhaust pipe of Mr. Liu's car. The husband claimed that her act violated his right to health, property, privacy and personal information.²⁴

Footnotes

1 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gAxXWcCF3eHMOaRCH4ow_A?scene=25#wechat_redirect

2 http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/202205/24/t20220524_37613991.shtml

3 https://www.cbirc.gov.cn/cn/view/pages/ItemDetail.html?docId=1052090&itemId=915

4 https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/fzggw/wld/lnx/lddt/202205/t20220524_1325249_ext.html

5 https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/cyxw/2022-05-18/doc-imcwiwst8014679.shtml

6 http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202205/b99c9f338eeb41519239b1a6025d35b6.shtml

7 http://www.shaanxi.gov.cn/xw/sxyw/202205/t20220510_2220278.html

8 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jECru9m9dQg0XCYxXXUlMg?scene=25#wechat_redirect

9 http://www.sz.gov.cn/cn/xxgk/zfxxgj/zwdt/content/post_9783306.html

10 https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/xxgk/zcfb/ghwb/202205/P020220510324220702505.pdf

11 http://finance.sina.com.cn/wm/2022-05-08/doc-imcwipii8652051.shtml?cref=cj

12 https://m.gmw.cn/baijia/2022-05/05/35709926.html

13 https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_18299237

14 https://h.xinhuaxmt.com/vh512/share/10830518?channel=weixin

15 https://www.cet.com.cn/nypd/zcjd/3183191.shtml

16 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2fsUwjP4hI6ZI2Y82xSHVw?scene=25#wechat_redirect

17 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qXUd5Ohcjsj-9GpWKwBhfg?scene=25#wechat_redirect

18 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gwqW3Mr_pr_RJzdVpBesfg?scene=25#wechat_redirect

19 https://m.gmw.cn/baijia/2022-05/07/1302935141.html

20 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-OvmNOizVjqQ5HOVmyf6Tg?scene=25#wechat_redirect

21 https://www.spp.gov.cn/zdgz/202205/t20220508_556310.shtml

22 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/osn1lIkdrzAEc54U87aNIA

23 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/WG-u1ZaHiOn9yX00irS35w?scene=25#wechat_redirect

24 https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_17909456

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