China's supreme legislative body passed a data protection law

China's government is stepping up its grip on the country's multi-billion dollar technology industry. China's supreme legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, passed a comprehensive data protection law that limits the use of data by tech firms. However, it is unlikely to change the widespread surveillance by the state. According to the state news agency Xinhua, the law is due to come into effect on November 1st. The full text has not yet been published. China's first national data protection law is similar to the European data protection regulation, one of the world's strongest frameworks for protecting online privacy. It requires all organizations or individuals handling personal data of Chinese citizens to minimize data collection and obtain prior consent from those concerned. Unlike in Europe, where governments are exposed to greater public pressure to collect data, the authorities are likely to retain full access to the data. Although the new data protection regulations could allow the Chinese central government to control the use and disclosure of data by subordinate authorities, "there is nothing to suggest that government surveillance has legal limits," said Karman Lucero, a fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center Yale Law School. "Chinese civil society still has very limited means to monitor the guards," he added. The new data protection law is part of stricter rules for Chinese tech companies. It was only on Tuesday that the SAMR competition authority published a whole bunch of regulatory proposals to put a stop to unfair competition and uncontrolled data processing. After years of giving the tech sector a free hand, the Beijing government has been tightening the thumbscrews for some time. With reference to market abuse and violations of consumer rights, high penalties have already been imposed and further steps are promised. The regulatory authority is now planning that companies will not be allowed to use data or algorithms to direct data traffic or influence users' decisions. In addition, it should be prevented that companies disseminate misleading information in order to make competitors look bad. The agency also has its sights set on marketing campaigns aimed at fake reviews or ratings. That could make life more difficult for e-commerce marketplaces and video portals, said analyst Michael Norris of the consulting firm AgencyChina. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, meanwhile, accused the operators of 43 apps of violating the regulations for handling user data and asked them to stop them by August 25. Otherwise, penalties would be imposed, it was said. Several popular apps from Internet giant Tencent were also reprimanded, including the messaging service Weixin, which has billions of users, as well as Tencent Video and Tencent Maps. These would have illegally accessed the user's contact lists and location data. The agency also pointed to the annoyance of users through pop-up windows. Most tech stocks on the Chinese stock exchanges continued to decline today. The technology index in Hong Kong closed at its lowest level since its calculation in July 2020. The papers of the delivery service Meituan lost 3.5 percent, for the online giant Alibaba it fell 2.8 percent. The shares of the gaming company Netease lost 4.5 percent, those of the video sharing platform Bilibili 5 percent.