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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

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

In the rapid development of artificial intelligence (“AI”), regulators are playing catch up in creating frameworks to aid and regulate its development.

As the AI landscape begins to mature, different jurisdictions have begun to publish guidance and frameworks. Most recently, on 11 June 2024, Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (“

Continue Reading HONG KONG: Artificial Intelligence – Model Personal Data Protection Framework

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