China put vehicle data security out for comment as a mandatory national standard
MIIT opened a two-month consultation on five mandatory standards for vehicles, headed by one that converts China's voluntary vehicle-data standard into a condition of market access and bars cars from sending data abroad directly.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology opened public comment on October 20 on five mandatory national standards for vehicles, drafted through the national automotive standardization technical committee. Responses are due by December 19.
The headline document, numbered GB 44464, replaces GB/T 44464—2024 on general vehicle data requirements. The change of prefix is the substance: a recommended standard becomes a compulsory one. It applies to M and N category vehicles and excludes special-purpose vehicles converted from already type-approved class-II chassis or complete vehicles.
Clause 6.8 is new and short. It states that a vehicle shall not transmit data directly outside China, with a note exempting user-initiated acts such as visiting foreign websites, sending messages abroad through communication software, or installing third-party applications. It replaces two separate clauses in the 2024 version that governed the export of personal information and of important data. A separate clause requires manufacturers to operate a data-export management system covering internal assessment before export, management of the statutory procedure, and continuous tracking.
The draft’s own change list records what else is new against 2024: data-security tool management, internal audit and management review, personal-information and important-data management, a per-model data security risk assessment, three chapters of inspection and test methods, same-type determination, and normative annexes including a per-model inventory of data-processing activities.
Clause 11 sets the transition. Newly approved models comply from the date the standard takes effect; models already approved have until the thirteenth month after it.
Two of the remaining four drafts also sit on this beat, covering parking combined driving assistance and automated parking systems.