China is introducing a counterpart to the General Data Protection Regulation in November

When you think of the People’s Republic of China, you don’t necessarily think of the protection of the privacy and data of its citizens. We constantly hear from cameras that follow residents at every turn or from particularly strict rules that are supposed to be enforced through surveillance. Now something seems to be changing, but it is not the state that is affected, but the companies that do business in the People’s Republic.

Specifically, it is about a new law to safeguard data protection. From November 1st, a counterpart to the General Data Protection Regulation valid in this country will come into force in China, which should give citizens more freedom to decide on the use of their data. The law on the protection of personal information was introduced by the government on Friday.

If we compare the GDPR and the Chinese law, then it seems as if the country was oriented towards the European Union. Companies now have to obtain the consent of the user if they want to obtain and process personal data from them. In addition, a concept must be presented that describes the process for storing data outside of China.

Here we also see a role that we already know from the EU: the data protection officer. This is responsible for compliance with the law, at the same time the company must go through regular audits to ensure that it is compliant with the law.

Finally, companies are only asked to collect data if this is absolutely necessary. The principles of Data avoidance and data economy are also anchored, only as much data as necessary should be saved.

Personalization is a result of the user’s choice and truly personalized recommendations require that the user can decide on them. Therefore, users must have the choice to object to the personalized recommendation.

Via The Verge