China issues data protection regulation.

• Position: PRIVACY - Brief article

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT) has issued a new regulation to protect personal data. "Several Provisions on Regulating Market Orders of Internet Information Services" defines 'User personal information" as any information that independently identifies a user or may be used to identify a user when combined with other data.

The Hunton & Williams LLP Privacy and Information Security Law blog reported that the new regulation will require Internet information service providers (IISPs) to provide stronger protection for the personal data they collect from users in China and will subject them to notice and consent requirements and collection and use limitations.

The new regulation prohibits IISPs from collecting or providing to third parties a user's personal information without the user's consent. In obtaining...