Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

Recently, the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Public Security, the National Development and Reform Commission and six other administrative departments jointly published the Announcement on Regulating the Administration of the Use of Resident Identity Cards (the “Announcement”). The Announcement came into effect on July 15, 2016, the date of its issuance.

The Announcement reiterates existing prohibitions against leasing, lending or assigning a resident identity card to another person, and reiterates an existing requirement that resident identity cards must not be seized or held as a security by government agencies, related entities or their staff.

According to the Announcement, when performing their duties or providing services, personnel of government agencies and related entities must not arbitrarily record the personal information of citizens that appears on their resident identity cards. Additionally, government agencies, related entities or their personnel cannot arbitrarily copy or scan identity cards of residents. The Announcement encourages citizens to resist unauthorized copying, scanning or seizure of their resident identity cards.

Government agencies and related entities are required to establish administrative systems for the security of personal information and develop those systems to their fullest extent, adopt internal storage systems for personal information that use strict access authorization procedures and strengthen their security measures to avoid the leakage or theft of information.

Government agencies and related entities are also required to establish a “blacklist” of individuals having a history of using the resident identity cards of other persons as their own, and to adopt information sharing mechanisms.