In March last year, personal data from 538 million users of microblogging site Weibo was leaked and sold on the dark web, including phone numbers, gender and their geographical location. Tianjin flat buyer Liu suspects a real estate brokerage leaked her personal data, but without proof she cannot take any action. The country’s 14th five-year plan, unveiled earlier this month, fast tracked the roll-out of two “fundamental” pieces of legislation, the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) and the Data Security Law. With insider theft being a major source of personal information leaks, companies need to improve their own control measures and both laws will push them to do that, said Anjie’s Yang. “Hefty fines proposed by the Personal Information Protection Law will have a great deterrent effect on companies, who will be more motivated to protect user data,” Yang added.

Source: The Star March 30, 2021 08:15 UTC