China set to pass new law to protect ‘legitimate rights’ on personal data

Lawmakers are reviewing revised version of the Personal Information Protection Law this week

It includes a ban on internet companies using big data to set discriminatory prices for frequent customers

Reading Time:2 minutes

The revised data privacy law includes a ban on “algorithmic discrimination”. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 10:49pm, 17 Aug 2021Updated: 11:20pm, 17 Aug 2021

Chinese lawmakers are reviewing a new privacy law this week that will ban internet companies from using big data to set discriminatory prices for users, according to state media.

A revised version of the Personal Information Protection Law is expected to be passed by China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, on Friday, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The draft has several revisions, including the ban on “algorithmic discrimination” – a common practice among Chinese internet companies where a platform charges different prices to different users based on how much it thinks they are willing to pay.

The revisions were needed to protect the “legitimate rights” of individuals who “feel strongly about the use of new technologies such as user profiling and recommendation algorithms, the use of big data in setting [unfair] prices for frequent customers, and information harassment in the sale of products and services”, a spokesperson for the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission told Xinhua on Tuesday.

The proposed legislation bans entities from automatically collecting personal data, and it cannot be used for “unreasonable” price discrimination, the report said.