Meanwhile, Xi’s government is tightening control over data gathered by private companies about the public — especially at Alibaba and Tencent, which have hundreds of millions of users. China’s leaders see information about its 1.4 billion people as a tool for gaining insight into the public and economy — and a potential security risk in private hands. A law that takes effect Nov. 1 establishes security standards, prohibits companies from disclosing information without customer permission and tells them to limit how much they collect. Unlike data protection laws in Western countries, the Chinese rules say nothing about limiting government or ruling party access to personal information. In April, Alibaba was fined 18.3 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) for offenses that included prohibiting vendors that wanted to use its platforms from dealing with Alibaba’s competitors.

Source: Daily Sun October 03, 2021 10:18 UTC