The Chinese government, which regularly uses information collected by the country’s technological giants for surveillance and law enforcement purposes, is stepping up legislative initiatives to regulate the collection of personal data by the private sector.
This more interventionist approach of the regime, after years of relative carelessness, constitutes an additional problem for foreign firms which hope to do well in the country.
The recent announcement of Yahoo! and the drastic reduction in services at Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is in part linked to increased government requirements for data collection, storage and access, notes Adam Segal, China and cybersecurity expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Foreign companies in China “find themselves in a difficult position”, even more so when they face pressure in their home countries related to their actual or alleged collaboration with Beijing’s censorship demands.
Blocked LinkedIn profiles
LinkedIn was notably put on the defensive a few weeks ago after American journalists dealing with Chinese issues complained that their profile page was blocked in the country due to the presence of “prohibited” content.
An elected official from Florida, Rick Scott, called Microsoft to account on this subject, being alarmed at the possibility that an American firm could censor American journalists “for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party”.
Yahoo !, which had already significantly reduced its services in China before its recent announcement of withdrawal, has been fiercely criticized in the past for providing sensitive information about Chinese users targeted by the security services.
Vincent Kasbi, head of the Asia section of Sia Partners, a major management consulting firm, notes that it is possible that these firms have come to the conclusion that they could not impose themselves commercially against local companies and that they decided to use the legislative context as a pretext to justify reducing or stopping their activities.
The Chinese government has long blocked Chinese internet users’ access to products from Silicon Valley companies like Facebook and Google, encouraging the development of local versions like Weibo or WeChat, which are legally required to actively collaborate with authorities.
The government has just introduced a new “law on the protection of personal information”, which entered into force on 1er November, which considerably strengthens the controls in place.
It aims in particular to closely regulate any transfer of data outside the borders of China and forces companies wishing to take advantage of the gigantic market of 900 million Internet users to mobilize “increased resources” to navigate the resulting legislative “patchwork”, notes Sia. Partners.
The new law also aims to meet the expectations of the Chinese population, which is worried about the uncontrolled collection of data and its use by private sector firms.
New requirements are planned to ensure that consumers consent to collection and retain control over how data is used. Mechanisms are provided to facilitate remedies for people who consider themselves wronged.
Increase in prosecutions
In particular by virtue of a recent revision of the Civil Code, an increasing number of such lawsuits have been identified in recent years in China.
In particular, a Hangzhou city law professor sued a zoo that wanted to use a facial recognition system to control access to its site and obtained an image of its face without permission. In April, a court ruled in his favor and ordered the company to destroy his data.
A Supreme People’s Court magistrate later said that the Chinese “are increasingly concerned about the use of facial recognition” and want more protection.
He did not mention the fact that the Chinese authorities themselves make extensive use of this technology, testifying to the paradoxical nature of the legal steps taken by the regime to protect the personal data of the population.
The Brookings Institution, in a recent analysis, notes that the law that came into effect a few days ago applies to various branches of the state, but that it is more, for the time being, of a ” ambition ”than a reality. It provides for important exceptions, especially for national security issues, and ignores the fact that legal challenges to government actions, even on administrative matters, “rarely succeed”.
Jacob Gunter, an analyst at the German research institute MERICS, recently noted in an interview with the Quartz website that China is a state with a single party that does not impose any restrictions on rights and powers. “Why would his approach to data and consumer rights be any different? », He emphasizes.