A series of moves by the Chinese government to assert dominance over the country's native tech giants has seemingly culminated with a new data security law that can put them out of business.
Selling customer data such as banking records, vehicle registration and mobile phone usage is big business in China. Recent data theft of 130 million clients of Huazhu Hotels Group saw the stolen payment and contact information going for about US$56,000.
The Trump administration set the internet ablaze when it issued an executive order that sets a firm date for a TikTok ban. That Tencent-owned WeChat would also be included was something of a surprise.
China recently passed an encryption law to regulate encryption in public and private sectors, and also set forth guidelines for how cryptography should be used to help safeguard national security.
China’s Personal Information Protection Law (“PIPL”) is now in effect, prompting a surge in hiring for DPOs. What was once a security-oriented role for DPOs in China has been elevated to serve the critical oversight function of ensuring organizational compliance with PIPL.
One key finding from CNCERT report shows most cyber attacks are using U.S. servers to implant viruses and carry out botnet attacks against Chinese computer assets.
The Chinese embassy in France indicated that discriminating against Huawei by selecting 5G network equipment based on the country of origin was blatant discrimination and industrial protectionism and hinted of possible retaliation.
Huawei claims that not only will they benchmark its Hongmeng OS against Apple iOS when it comes to data privacy and security, it will also be 60% faster than Android and MacOS.
Chinese Internet users have become much more vocal about what they perceive to be potential breach of privacy by China Internet Giants - Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.