According to the Legislative Affairs Commission of China, the country’s new law on data privacy will include provisions to protect personal biometric information, despite the high state of surveillance. The law aims to confront growing concerns over the government’s prolific use of facial recognition technology and biometric data. The law, called the Personal Information Protection Law, will clarify when facial biometrics can be used. It will also enforce a risk assessment requiring law enforcement agencies to analyze the risks of implementing the technology and only allow for it to be used when “sufficiently necessary.”
The draft text of the law was released in mid-October and states that sensitive personal information collected in China’s surveillance programs and protected under the new law includes race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, medical health, individual location tracking, biometric features, and financial status. According to a spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commision, the technology has created challenges for the protection of personal information.
Read More: China’s new data privacy law ‘will state how facial recognition can be used’