On September 1, the Chinese government will implement newly adopted rules to control data transfer outside the country, a new step in Beijing’s campaign to tighten control of the digital space. The China Cyberspace Administration recently announced that critical infrastructure sectors such as communications, finance and transportation are among the sectors covered by the new rules, and companies want to hand over the personal data of 100,000 or more people for security checks.

Security controls will also apply to companies that process the personal data of 1 million or more people and to operators that have shared the personal data of at least 100,000 people cumulatively since the beginning of the previous year. Operators transferring 10,000 or more fingerprints and other sensitive personal data are also subject to the rules.

These companies will have to inform the authorities of the purpose of the data transfer, the security measures taken and the laws and regulations of the destination country. Investigators will then investigate the possibility of a data leak. There are concerns that the new rules will affect the transfer of information to countries in data disputes with China.

In recent years, China has passed a number of laws on the protection of personal data. The government implemented the Cyber ​​Security Law in 2017, and the Data Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law in 2021. Future measures to assess the security of cross-border data transmissions are based on three data laws.

Due to tensions with the US, Beijing has taken steps to restrict data that could determine a country’s or business’ competitive advantage. Last month, Didi Global, the country’s largest ride-hailing app, was removed from the New York Stock Exchange after Chinese officials voiced concerns about a data leak.

Last year, the People’s Liberation Army imposed restrictions on the use of Tesla cars amid suspicions that data collected by the American electric car maker would be transferred abroad. Source