China's Draft Civil Code To Extend Privacy Protection

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress published the Personal Rights of the Civil Code (draft for third reading) on August 27 for public comment.  Chapter Six (Articles 811-817) is dedicated to Privacy Rights and Personal Information (PI) Protection.  The new chapter, if enacted in its current form, would extend the scope of personal protection to both privacy rights and PI. 

Privacy is defined statutorily for the first time in the draft Civil Code as private space, private activities and private information which a natural person is unwilling to be made known to other persons, and that no organization or individual may infringe the privacy rights of other persons through spying, intrusion, leakage or public disclosure (Article 811).  "Not willing to be made known to other persons" is a highlight of the new third draft and was not reflected in earlier drafts.  The draft Civil Code provides that, except as stipulated by law or with the consent of the