The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released an important Q&A on cross-border data transfer requirements and policies in early April, providing clarification on a number of issues of concern to companies in China. Key points include:
Data other than important data and personal data can flow freely across borders. The Q&A emphasizes that, in principle
Continue Reading China: CAC publishes official Q&As for cross-border data transfer regulation
Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which is the primary data regulator in China, published a newsletter about the government authorities’ enforcement of Apps and websites that violated personal data protection and cybersecurity laws during the year 2024.
Based on the official statistics, during 2024, the CAC interviewed 11,159 website platforms, imposed warnings or
Continue Reading CHINA: Recent Enforcement Trends
Chinese data regulators are intensifying their focus on the data protection compliance audit obligations under the Personal Information Protection Law (“PIPL“), with the release of the Administrative Measures for Personal Information Protection Compliance Audits (“Measures“), effective 1 May 2025.
The Measures outline the requirements and procedures for both self-initiated and regulator-requested
Continue Reading CHINA: Mandatory Data Protection Compliance Audits from 1 May 2025
On 3 January 2025, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC“) released for public consultation the draft Measures for Certification of Personal Information Protection for Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Information (“Draft Measures“). This regulation represents the final piece in the CAC’s regulatory framework for the three routes to legitimize cross-border transfers of personal data
Continue Reading CHINA: Draft Regulation on Certification for Cross-Border Data Transfers Published
Additional and clarified data compliance obligations will soon come into force under the long-awaited Network Data Security Management Regulation (“Regulation“), which was released on 30 September 2024. The Regulation is formulated under the existing data protection framework pillars of the Cyber Security Law, the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law
Continue Reading CHINA: Enhanced and clarified data compliance obligations on handlers of “network data”, covering personal information and important data, and operators of online platforms from 1 January 2025
We previously wrote about proposed changes to the definition of sensitive personal information under a June 2024 draft of the Guide for Sensitive Personal Information Identification (“Guide“). The Guide has now (September 2024) been finalized and issued by the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee (TC260). Helpfully, it gives organisations greater scope to
Continue Reading China: New definition and guidelines on Sensitive Personal Information now finalised
The Personal Information Protection Law (“PIPL“) requires a data controller to conduct compliance audits of its personal data processing activities on a regular basis (“Self-supervision Audits“). Apart from such Self-supervision Audits, in case the data regulator finds significant risks involved in a data controller’s processing or where data incidents occur, the
Continue Reading CHINA: Mandatory data protection compliance (self) audits on their way
While the definition of sensitive personal information in China has always been different to other jurisdictions, with a focus on risk of harm at its heart, new draft guidance should make it easier for organisations to map their processing of China sensitive personal information, which is increasingly important in light of new cross-border data transfer
Continue Reading China: Important new guidance on defining sensitive personal information
Data classification and grading is an obligation that each data handler must comply with under the Chinese data protection laws. Data handlers have been waiting for clear requirements and standards on how to carry out the relevant work. The newly published national standard GB/T 43697-2024 Data Security Technology – Rules for Data Classification and Grading
Continue Reading CHINA: New national data classification and grading standard is released
In good news, on 22 March 2024, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) finalised long-awaited guidelines setting out exemptions to some of the more challenging cross-border data transfer (“CBDT”) compliance requirements (“Guidelines”). As well the exemptions, there are updated filing templates for those still falling outside the exemptions; and
Continue Reading CHINA: Cross Border Data Transfer Requirements – exemptions now available
