back to article China puts continuous consent at the center of data protection law

China has passed a law that authorities say "further perfects" existing arrangements for protection of personal data. The new "Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" comes into effect on November 1st, 2021, and comprises eight chapters and 74 articles that outline strict yet vague measures on …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "death doesn't end the information collector's responsibilities or the individual's rights"

    Interesting. I'd've thought that death meant the erasure of said data, but they're not going that way.

    The only way the deceased' family can be granted access is if the deceased created a profile under his legal name and address. That means no anonymous logons.

    Well, China's government is not big on anonymity . . .

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "death doesn't end the information collector's responsibilities or the individual's rights"

      Err, if the person used an anonymous login, how is anybody going to know wher he or she is alive or dead? Or indeed whether they ar a dog? :)

  2. tip pc Silver badge

    So cheap Chinese IoT has better data laws than the EU

    I’m certainly getting fed up of companies demanding ever more data from me.

    I’m going to start lying to them as saying I don’t want to provide illicit’s a response along the lines of I must comply.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So cheap Chinese IoT has better data laws than the EU

      This law as reported from El Reg looks just a copy of GDPR - but data "inheritance".

      Probably China enforcement - every time the China government thinks so - will be far faster than the Irish DPC, and lawyers won't be able to earn much from trying to keep appeals alive for years.

      Anyway it's a cunning move against USA and their data hoarding companies - it puts US privacy laws in the bad ones angle, and US politicians will now face the dilemma of issuing strong privacy laws as well, damaging Facebook, Google & C. (and their "world dominance"), or keep on getting the lobbying money, do nothing and look the bad ones.

      And China knows in the West laws bind the government too, in China not so much...

  3. Pete 2 Silver badge

    That funny feeling

    > outline strict yet vague measures on how and when data is collected and managed, individuals' rights, and who ultimately owns data.

    It seems odd that supposedly progressive countries have to look to authoritarian governments to set the standard for citizens rights.

    Still I suppose when you aren't inconvenienced by having to ask permission, setting such standards is a much easier task.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: That funny feeling

      > It seems odd that supposedly progressive countries have to look to authoritarian governments to set the standard for citizens rights.

      This doesn't really give citizens any additional rights though, even if mainland Chinese culture were to have any concept of privacy. All it does is give the CCP another stick with which to beat uppity billionaires.

      1. Snake Silver badge

        Re: uppity billionaires

        There is a fallacy within that remark, that billionaires aren't inherently operating a form of authoritarianism, only one for [their own] profit.

        Rules that are imposed without avoidance, restricting your right to self choice, is "authoritarian" no matter the motive, selfish profit or ideological purity.

        1. EnviableOne

          Re: uppity billionaires

          Ask Jack Ma, or any number of the Chinese CEOs is they or the CCP are in charge you will sharply find the answer

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I see the shadow of the GDPR, there is a lot of overlap here. But the Chinese have turned the screws a little tighter. The think about the fate of the data of the deceased is probably a cultural thing. The dead ancestors have a more continued immediate presence in East Asia than in Europe.

    Just a pity that the law in China exempts governmental institutions from any accountability. With the current administration in China, that will not change.

    1. Mike 137 Silver badge

      "Just a pity that the law in China exempts governmental institutions from any accountability"

      Even the GDPR gives government bodies vast freedoms. it's unavoidable as governments effectively make the laws.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Still Western government are still far more accountable and transparent than the Chinese one.

        Governments anyway have to collect and store citizens data just to function - it's no surprise there are exceptions. Actually the lack of data may make some essential service not working or working badly.

        For example the attempts in some US States to disenfranchise voters is impossible in many European States were the list of eligible voters is kept up to date and voters are assigned to specific places to vote, and the system is not in the hands of politicians. National Health Services have to track services to citizens as well.

        Of course there are spaces for abuses - still they could easily be worse without laws like GDPR which establish a fundamental rights and the specific exceptions.

  5. IGotOut Silver badge

    Could we have the Chinese laws..

    ... just without the authoritarian, genocidal, mass internment and lack of freedom of speech parts.

    Thanks.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    The Why, The What

    Why China is doing this, I neither know nor care. And I recognize that they are nefarious but...

    What they are doing is a leap beyond any Western government and I have not seen anything in this law that I would not support.

    It's a pipe dream but I would love to see Farcebook shut down like the Chinese shut down Didi.

    1. doublelayer Silver badge

      Re: The Why, The What

      The why is to have additional measures for penalizing tech companies who don't do what China wants. Usually, that's actually anti-privacy measures such as having pseudonymous or anonymous interactions, encrypting anything, not having records to provide to the police, etc. The letter of the law is very nice though. Like GDPR but with a few extra features which aren't bad. If only they did this because they believed in that.

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