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October 28 2013

China 's Regulation on Personal Data Use by Commercial Websites

"China 's Personal Information Provisions, which regulates the collection and use of personal information by providers of Telecommunications, Internet and information services within China, came into force on September 1. It will affect a wide range of consumer-facing websites, including corporate sites, product information sites, and social media pages. The Personal Information Provisions follow the same framework as China 's Decision by the Standing Committee of the National People 's Congress on the Strengthening of the Protection of Network Information, but provide significantly more detail by addressing the collection and use of personal information of individual users (i.e., passwords, names, date of birth, addresses, account numbers and so forth, as well as metadata about a user 's habits, including the time and location of the use of the services). From a compliance perspective, the Personal Information Provisions have important business implications for those who are considered ""Service Providers,"" including many commercial websites. The method and scope of collection and usage must now be specified and consent from data subjects must now be obtained. Those compliance obligations, in and of themselves, are important changes brought about by the recent legislation and may require many foreign-invested businesses in China to adjust their current data collection model and practices."