Draft law protects personal information in internet era

China's first draft law on personal information protection will be revised to deal with technological challenges in the internet era and help the country solve data collection amid the COVID-19 outbreak, a senior legislator said.

Considering that health QR codes on smartphones have contributed to pandemic control and the reopening of businesses nationwide, the draft law, which was deliberated in October by the Standing Committee of National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, stipulates that some personal information can be used in public health emergencies or urgent incidents to protect people's safety.

"But the collection of information and how it is used in these situations must be clarified and disclosed to the information providers to protect and ensure information safety," said Wang Ruihe, director of the Economic Law Department from the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission.

He stressed the requirement in February, adding that his department has planned to solicit opinions about the draft from people of more walks of life to amend and improve it.

Personal information protection has also aroused attention among deputies to the NPC, "as it's close to everyone's daily lives and interests," said Fu Yuhang, an NPC deputy from Sichuan province.

Before this year's annual session of the NPC, which will open on Friday, Fu said she will continue following the draft law and suggest the top legislature give stronger legal support to personal information protection amid the outbreak.

Guo Weimin, spokesman for the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, said at a news conference on Wednesday that many members of the CPPCC National Committee have paid great attention to the issue.

They believe that figuring out how to regulate internet enterprises to collect, store or use personal information in line with laws and to effectively ensure information safety are important and urgent issues, Guo said.

He added that some members from enterprises pledged to safeguard personal information safety by improving self-regulation, taking responsibility and balancing the relation between providing information service and managing information.

Cai Weiping, an NPC deputy from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, recently told Guangzhou Daily that protecting privacy and preventing online bullying in the collection and use of pandemic-related personal information is an urgent issue.

In his view, some government agencies responsible for preventing the pandemic had gaps in information management and protection that caused information leaks about a few patients and their family members and led to secondary damage.

Given that pandemic control has become normal, he called for the country to promptly unify standards on what information should be collected and how to do it, he added.

To better solve new problems, such as collecting personal information through facial recognition in some public places, Wang, the legislator, said such biological information must be collected and handled more prudently and strictly.

"We'll also improve relevant parts in the draft after doing more research on these new technologies and new online applications," he added.

In December, the number of Chinese internet users hit 989 million, an increase of 85.4 million from March 2020, according to a report released last month by the China Internet Network Information Center.