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Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.
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New Cross-Border Data Transfer Rules Ease Compliance Burdens on Multinational Employers
New Regulation or Official Guidance
Author: Xi (Grace) Yang, Of Counsel – Littler
On March 22, 2024, the Cyberspace Administration of China (the CAC) released the Provisions on Promoting and Regulating Cross-border Data Flows (the Provisions) which went into effect on the same day. The Provisions mostly preserved the key provisions of the draft rules proposed by the CAC in late September 2023. Some key highlights include the following:
- Employers are exempt from entering into the Standard Contract when transferring HR data from China that is necessary to carry out cross-border HR management in accordance with the employer’s internal labor rules and regulations and collective bargaining contracts.
- Businesses that are not a critical information infrastructure operator and transfer the personal information, excluding sensitive personal information, of fewer than 100,000 individuals are exempt from the requirement that they enter into the Standard Contract.
- Other requirements in China’s Personal Information Protection Law applicable to cross-border data transfers continue to apply, including:
- Providing notice to employees and business contacts that their personal information will be transferred overseas
- Obtaining their express consent to the transfer
- Completing a transfer impact assessment before transferring any personal data out of China
China Released New Guidance for Declaring Data Security Assessment and Filing Standard Contract
New Regulation or Official Guidance
Author: Xi (Grace) Yang, Of Counsel – Littler
On March 22, 2024, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) also released Data Transfer Security Assessment Declaration Guidelines and the Personal Information Export Standard Contract Filing Guidelines (Contract Filing Guidelines). These guidelines are intended to help personal information handlers subject to the data security requirements under the new cross-border data transfer rules discussed above. Among other things, the Contract Filing Guidelines include an amended version of the transfer impact statement (TIA) template, which removed a number of required sections from the previous version of the TIA.
