November 1, 2021: A New Day For Data Protection In China

In recent years, the question of privacy protection in China has been an important concern, and specifically for companies with business ties to China. While many jurisdictions undertook privacy reform in the past years, such as the European Union with the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") or California with the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), some have considered that China lags behind in privacy protection. It is in that context that China passed a major new privacy law on August 20, 2021. The new law, often cited in English as the Personal Information Protection Law ("PIPL") comes into force on November 1, 2021.¹ As the PIPL outlines in its first article, the aim of the law is to "protect personal information rights and interests, regulate the processing of personal information, and promote the reasonable use of personal information". The PIPL complements China's Cybersecurity Law and the Data Security Law and completes China's legislative