On October 8, the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee ("NISSTC") issued the Practical Guide on Cybersecurity Standard--Guidelines for Data Classification (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") for public comments.

The Draft for Comment provides the principles, framework and rules of data classification from the perspective of national data security management. Regarding the data classification rules, the Draft for Comment specifies the identification and classification of personal information, public data, and legal person's data. Regarding the classification of personal information, the Draft for Comment defines sensitive personal information and private personal information from different perspectives, specifically, when determining whether it is sensitive personal information, the focus should be place on: "whether the leakage or illegal use of the information per se directly infringes the personal dignity of the information subject" and other two elements; while it is considered private personal information on satisfaction of two conditions, one of which is "the information is privately owned and the owner has the right to decide whether to make the information public".

(Source: National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee)