China’s personal information protection law (PIPL) is the new data privacy law in China which establishes strong privacy laws for the use of Chinese residents’ personal data, which includes both at home and abroad. Further, it addresses the problems with personal data leakage and targets at personal information protection while prohibiting the transfer of this information across China’s borders to nations.
The new legislation which Consists of 74 articles spanning eight chapters, could be identified as China’s first comprehensive legislation controlling the protection of personal information.
Thus, this article seeks to examine how China’s privacy law has developed through China’s personal information protection law. (PIPL)
Data privacy in China was previously governed by a variety of different laws, namely the Data Security Law (DSL) and Cybersecurity Law (CSL) but the PIPL now provides an overarching data privacy law being China’s first comprehensive law designed to regulate and protect personal information.
Thereby, the PIPL was passed by the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress on August 20, 2021. Moreover, on November 1, 2021, the new legislation, along with the consequences for non-compliance, went into force.
One of the most important factors that could be identified in the latest legislation would be that many of PIPL’s elements strongly resembles the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). as much of it has been based on the principles and provisions of the GDPR.
Furthermore it could be recognised that the PIPL is not only applicable to organizations and individuals who process personally identifiable information in China, but also those who process data outside of China. This can be regarded as the extra territorial application of PIPL, in which so governs the processing of personal information of individuals located in China, regardless of whether or not the entities processing that information are in China.
Thereby, this comprehensive new legislation helps the Chinese Authorities in many ways to safeguard and protect privacy law in China.