China’s new data privacy law ‘will state how facial recognition can be used’
- Personal Information Protection Law will allow use of sensitive information only for specific purposes and when ‘sufficiently necessary’, legislative body says
- Draft text released for public consultation suggests sensitive information will include ethnicity, religion, facial biometrics and medical health
Yue Zhongming, spokesman for the Legislative Affairs Commission of China’s legislature, said on Monday morning that the proposed Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) will make clear that sensitive information such as facial biometrics must be “used for specific purposes and only when sufficiently necessary”, and that a risk assessment should be conducted in advance.
“The use and development of facial recognition and other new technologies has created new challenges for the protection of personal information,” Yue said. “The Legislative Affairs Commission will listen further to a wide range of opinions on this issue, and conduct in-depth research and assessment.”
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Legal experts have welcomed the draft text, drawing parallels with the European Union’s data legislation, the General Data Protection Regulation, which states that individuals own their own data and companies are only stewards of it.