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China launched standard contract measures for overseas personal information transfer on Friday. The new provisions, clarifying contract procedure for personal information export, will be effective from June 1, 2023.

According to a statement from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Friday, the measures were introduced to implement the provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law, protect individual privacy rights, and regulate the outbound transfer of personal information.

The measures specify the scope of application and record-keeping requirements for the standard contract of outbound transfer of personal information. The newly released measures also provide a model contract, which provides specific guidance for providing personal information to overseas parties.

Before providing personal information to overseas parties, a personal information handler should conduct a personal information protection impact assessment and identify key assessment content, the CAC said, requiring the personal information handler to file for record-keeping with the provincial-level cyberspace department within ten working days of the contract's effectiveness.

China started to implement a set of regulations on security assessment of cross-border data transfers in September last year, as the world's second-largest economy accelerates the implementation of regulations and standards targeting data in key sectors in a bid to strengthen data security.

Since January 1, 2021, data processors that transfer personal information of 100,000 individuals, or sensitive personal information of 10,000 people have been required to undergo a security review before transferring personal data abroad.

China's first case of security assessment for data export was approved in Beijing in January. According to the Beijing office of the CAC, the collaborative research project between Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University and the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam (AMC-UvA) became China's first case of data approved to be exported.

Global Times