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Urgent need for biological information regulation in China

(People's Daily Online)    13:20, April 19, 2019

(Photo/Xinhua)

There is an urgent need for biological information regulation in China, as more people face the risks of information leakage, theft, and abusive use of their personal biological information.

Alongside fast-developing artificial intelligence (AI), the acquisition, gathering, storing and application of personal biological information, including fingerprints, irises, faces and DNA, are becoming more convenient and therefore more common.

Among 100 surveyed mobile apps, over 90 percent had collected more user information than required, and 10 apps failed to notify users on personal biological information collection, according to a report released by the China Consumers’ Association last November.

In February this year, a Chinese AI company was accused of a large-scale data breach. More than 6.8 million items were potentially leaked including facial images, meaning the personal information of 2.5 million people could have been illegally acquired.

Yi Tong, deputy to the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress, proposed new legislation on the biological information protection as Chinese law lacks in this respect.

Yi, also a director of the Beijing Science Research Center, said that personal biological information is different from passwords that can be updated and changed. Once leaked, information security would at a much higher risk and could trigger severe consequences.

China still lacks regulations and mechanisms to deal with risks and unfair competition in the commercial application of personal biological information in relevant industries, Yi said. 

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)

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