How will Chinese Regulations on Cross-Border Data Transfers Affect Data Compliance?

(By Gao Tianyi and You Yunting) China’s legal system for dealing with data security and personal information protection standards has been established*, but more detailed rules and standards are in the process of being formulated. This article will mainly discuss the new requirements for, and new changes in, data localization and compliance management regarding cross-border data transfers.

The analysis shows that those who use data from China should keep abreast of changes in policy orientation within the country, in order to avoid potential regulatory risks.

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Does the Acquisition and Use of User Information Constitute Unfair Competition?

(By Gao Tianyi and You Yunting) Data buyers often focus on several potential legal concerns in web-scraped data, particularly relating to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in the United States. But a recent case in China between Weibo and Maimai demonstrates that even where the CFAA does not apply and vendors are using an Open API, risks may still exist if the buyers fail to acquire and use data appropriately.

Weibo is one of China’s largest social media platforms and has over 530 million monthly active users, according to China Internet Watch. Maimai is a China-based professional social-networking platform, which was initially modelled on LinkedIn. In July 2019, Maimai had 25 million monthly active users.

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