China is poised to enshrine individuals' rights to privacy and personal data for the first time, a symbolic first step as more of the country of 1.4 billion people becomes digitized - and more vulnerable to leaks and hacks.
The legislation is part of China's first civil code, a sweeping package of laws that is being deliberated during the annual meeting of parliament, which began on Friday after a delay of more than two months due to the coronavirus.
According to a recent draft, an individual has a right to privacy and to have their personal information protected.
Data collectors have a duty to protect an individual's personal information and cannot obtain, disclose or conduct transactions of such data without consent.
The push to shore up data privacy in China is widely seen as an effort to protect and legitimize the country's fast-growing internet sector and place safeguards on the movement of valuable Chinese data overseas.
The legislation will need to be followed by detailed regulation spelling out how those rights will be protected, and this gives no protection from increasingly pervasive surveillance by a government that wields total control over the country's digital sphere.
Nevertheless, lawyers and legal experts say the recognition of digital privacy rights is an important first step allowing individuals who suffer from leaks to seek readdress.
"When the law hasn't set a definition for personal information, then a lot of disputes are very hard to resolve because there's no way to sue," said Xu Ke, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
The legislation places China among a minority of countries building legal frameworks governing individual data privacy, although individual protections currently in place ..
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