China's new personal information law highlights users' consent: expert

BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, has adopted a new law on personal information protection.

Designed to curb collection of excessive personal information and its misuse, which is often a subject of complaints, the law seeks to ensure users' knowledge and consent when their personal data is collected and processed, law expert Yang Heqing said while explaining the law.

Yang, an official with the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, added that some online service providers have been misusing personal information to profile their users so as to differentiate prices, which causes price discrimination and harms the economic interests of consumers.

Meanwhile, for online platforms and service providers in possession of massive amounts of user information, the consequences of information leak can be extremely severe, said Yang.

By establishing a set of regulations, the law clarifies the responsibilities of parties involved in personal information collection and processing, Yang added.

He emphasized the necessity to boost public awareness so as to facilitate the implementation of the law that comes into effect on Nov. 1.