Data is the lifeblood of the digital economy. Much of the data in use today is generated by the everyday activities of consumers as they communicate, shop, travel, work, or engage in routine interactions with other consumers, businesses, and government entities through digital systems, platforms, and media. This has led to an enormous accumulation of data about individual consumers that can directly or indirectly provide information about their characteristics, preferences, activities, or behaviors.

This chapter analyses the policy and regulatory developments leading up to the enactment of the Cyber Security Law, including China’s Anti-Terrorism Law and how enforced source code ‘backdoor provisions’ were removed from the final draft of this law to protect China’s innovation policy goals. The discussion of China’s Network Sovereignty push is continued by explaining the significant debate about Network Sovereignty-related ideological thinking in China’s Anti-Terrorism Law. This law is yet another example of how problematic laws are delayed, as further consultation is sought. Comparisons are also made with a similar policy debate on ‘backdoor provisions’ in the United States, to show that the initial Chinese approach was not so different from universal debates, at that time, and ultimately reflects international practice. Similar approaches are now finding more widespread acceptance globally including in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Provides an omnibus conclusion on government cloud computing adoption and a look forward to impending challenges.

Privacy and information security are distinct but related fields.1 Security focuses on questions surrounding the extent to which related products, systems, and processes can effectively defend against “attacks on confidentiality, integrity and availability of code and information.”2 The field of information security often involves inquiries about the legal consequences of security failures.3 In 2018, The Economist reported that “more than ninety percent of the world’s data appeared in just the past two years.”4 In the last decade there have been multiple large-scale data breaches and inadvertent data exposures that have resulted in the disclosure of millions of our data.