China's plan to introduce digital ID system stokes fears of govt overreach

By Josh Xiao

China’s plan to introduce a nationwide digital identification system has been met with criticism of government overreach in a country that already closely monitors and censors speech.

Some legal experts and users in the world’s largest internet market have openly doubted the efforts’ stated goal of protecting privacy after authorities published the proposal last week. China’s internet regulator and police said users could opt in to such digital IDs, which would let them verify their identity online without giving up unnecessary personal details to internet service providers.

“The real intention is to step up the control of individual expressions online,” Lao Dongyan, a law professor at Tsinghua University, said in a post on X-like Weibo on Tuesday that has since been removed. Du Zhaoyong, a lawyer, said in another post the move will have a “destructive” effect on the free flow of information.

The Chinese government already requires internet users to use their real identities to register for digital services and has extensive access to their online behavior and communications. But a new centralized digital ID system may give authorities a more direct and complete view of people’s online lives.

Jeremy Daum, senior fellow at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center, said Chinese people may be more wary of such a system following the use of health codes, an online identification system China used during the pandemic to record and control citizens’ movement in order to contain the virus.

But he said the regulation appears to be focused on privacy, not content.

“In China, privacy regulation is usually privacy versus other citizens and corporations rather than versus the government,” he said. The proposed system “gives you a new level of privacy where you don’t have to share information with a corporation, but the government of course still has access to that information.”

The proposal by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Public Security seeks to create a unified system for identity verification that would limit internet companies’ ability to collect data. 

Users may voluntarily request a unique ID, made up of alphabets and digits, and a digital certificate to confirm their identity. Internet platforms shouldn’t ask for other personal information once a user is authenticated, according to the proposal.

Beijing has lashed out at internet platform companies for collecting excessive data, with the internet watchdog in 2021 naming 105 apps for violations including ByteDance Ltd’s Douyin and Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn.

More than 50 popular apps, including those run by Tencent Holdings Ltd, Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd and ByteDance, have tested the proposed authentication system, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday, citing a survey it carried out.

The draft rules are open to public feedback until Aug 25.