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
Following Malaysia’s introduction of data breach notification and data protection officer (“DPO”) appointment requirements in last year’s significant amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act (“PDPA”) (click here for our summary), the Personal Data Protection Commissioner of Malaysia (“Commissioner”) recently released guidelines that flesh out such requirements, titled the
Continue Reading Malaysia: Guidelines Issued on Data Breach Notification and Data Protection Officer Appointment
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
At the Legislative Council Panel on Constitutional Affairs held on 19 February 2024, the Privacy Commissioner (“Commissioner“) reported that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data was working with the Government to review the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (“PDPO“) to strengthen personal data protection in Hong Kong. At the
Continue Reading Hong Kong: Updates to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance put on hold
It’s the turn of South-East Asian countries to update their data protection laws. Here is our summary of the proposed new data protection laws in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. Organisations are advised to update their data protection compliance programmes as soon as possible to reflect these developments.
Vietnam
Vietnam issued its first draft of a
Continue Reading VIETNAM, MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA: what you need to know about the new SE Asia data protection laws
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
Hong Kong is following other jurisdictions, including Mainland China, Singapore and the UK, in proposing to enhance cybersecurity obligations on IT systems of those operating critical infrastructure (“CI“). While the proposed new law, tentatively entitled the Protection of Critical Infrastructure (Computer System) Bill (the“proposed legislation”), is still at an early stage
Continue Reading Hong Kong: A Practical Guide to the Proposed Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Legislation
