Law note · China
Personal Information Protection Law, Supervision and Legal Liability
The Cyberspace Administration of China leads coordination, with sectoral State Council departments and their local counterparts supervising within their own scope; investigative powers include interviews, record examination, on-site inspection, and, with approval, seizure of equipment.
Ordinary violations draw a warning, confiscation of gains, and service suspension, escalating on non-correction to fines up to RMB 1,000,000 for the entity and RMB 10,000 to 100,000 for the responsible individual; grave violations draw fines up to RMB 50,000,000 or 5 percent of the prior year's revenue, possible business suspension or license revocation, individual fines of RMB 100,000 to 1,000,000, and a bar on serving as a director, supervisor, senior manager, or protection officer of a related enterprise.
A handler that cannot prove itself free of fault bears civil compensation liability, and procuratorates and designated organizations may bring public-interest suits over mass violations.
What it asks of an app
- Comply with lawful CAC and sectoral-regulator investigation, including document production and on-site inspection.
- Bear the burden of proving the absence of fault once an individual establishes harm from unlawful personal information processing, or pay compensation.
When LexLint raises it
Declared activities: crawls_web, trains_models, generates_content, deploys_chatbot, automated_outreach, high_risk_decisions, processes_voice, processes_biometrics
Primary source: official CAC-published full Chinese statutory text