The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the Personal Information Protection Law in August to “protect the rights and interests of personal information, regulate personal information processing activities, and promote the rational use of personal information.”
The law includes provisions requiring any cross-border data transfers to be submitted first to the Cyberspace Administration of China, the cyber and data protection regulator in China, and states violations could lead to fines ranging between $7.7 million or up to 5% of a company’s previous year’s business revenue.
The law went into effect November 1st, and many international apps are removing themselves from app stores in the country until they can better track compliance.
Patrick Lenihan, a spokesperson for Grindr said, “Like many other U.S. companies, we’ve chosen to remove our app from the app store in China due to the potential increased burden from China’s recently implemented Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL).”
Some media outlets have claimed that Grindr has removed itself from the app stores due to the Olympics, but that seems like more of a stretch than most of the athletes perform before competing.
