Draft law proposes security assessment of data exported out of China
By Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace
The Cyberspace Administration of China has released a draft law that would impose an annual security assessment on firms exporting data out of China.
The proposed legislation would apply to any business which transfers more than 1000 gigabytes of data, or which affects more than 500,000 users, and is the latest of several safeguards announced in recent times against threats such as hacking and terrorism.
Under the draft law, economic, technological or scientific data whose transfer would post a threat to public or security interests would be banned, and there would be extra scrutiny of sensitive geographic data.
Businesses would also have to obtain the consent of users before transmitting it overseas.
The draft law follows another passed in November 2016 which formalised a range of controls over firms that handle data in industries the Chinese government labels critical to national interests.