Baidu chief executive Robin Li Yanhong has called for Chinese government bodies to work together on a coordinated approach to manage the personal data collected and stored during the coronavirus pandemic., reported the South China Morning Post.
In a proposal for the Two Sessions, China’s annual legislative and political advisory gathering that is slated to kick off today, the billionaire tech leader suggested having an opt-out mechanism to withdraw personal data that was collected during the pandemic.
Government bodies should also study standards relating to the collection, storage and use of personal data under “special circumstances” and standardize the management of such data to reduce the risk of data leakage and abuse, Li wrote in his proposal, which was released to the public on Wednesday.
As China raced to contain the spread of the outbreak that started in January, China’s central and provincial governments have been gathering and analyzing even more data, by extending real-name registration and facial recognition requirements to over-the-counter purchases of medicine and all forms of public transport.