China’s national online ID service went into effect earlier this month with the promise of improving user privacy by limiting the amount of data collected by private-sector companies. However, the measures have been criticised by privacy and digital rights activists as giving the government more control over citizens’ online activities.
The National Online Identity Authentication Public Service is a government-run digital identity system that will reduce the overall information footprint by allowing citizens to register with legitimate government documents and then protecting their data from Internet services. Users can choose not to utilise the service at this time, however businesses are expected to refrain from collecting users’ personal information unless specifically mandated by law.
Kendra Schaefer, a partner at Beijing-based policy consultancy Trivium China, claims that the rules, on the surface, give Internet users a centralised repository for their identity data, owned by the government, and to prevent inconsistent handling by private enterprises.
“Basically, they’re jus
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