On March 22, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China published drafts of the Business Services Specification for Mobile Commodity E-commerce and Business Services Specification for Cross-border Commodity E-commerce (source documents in Chinese), which contain provisions that require e-commerce service providers to take measures to ensure the security of operational data and service platforms. Under the draft specifications, any collection and processing of personal or transaction information requires the authorization of the data subject or parties to the transaction, and such information may not be directly used for commercial purposes unless it has been desensitized.

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