China's New Cyber-Security Law: Progress Or A Sideways Step?

Keywords: cyber law, privacy regulation, information security

On 8 July 2015, the People's Congress released the first draft of the Cyber-security Law (the "Cyber Law") for public comment. The Cyber Law is the first regulation in China exclusively devoted to information security and data privacy in cyberspace. The Cyber Law is an important step to bringing China's privacy regulation and information security regulation in line with the rest of the world even though its particular features have generated concerns and will present implementation challenges for the international community.

Notably, prior to the Cyber Law China did not have one single over-arching legislation that specifically addressed the collection, storage, transmission, and operation of personal information. Rather, individuals had to rely on sector-specific laws to enforce their right to privacy of their data. Some provisions in the Cyber Law appear to replicate provisions in the existing MIIT