Shenzhen Drafts China's First BCI Industry Rules, Requiring Separate Brain Data Consent
The Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Science, Technology and Innovation (深圳市科技创新局) in southern China and the city's Bureau of Justice have opened public consultation on draft regulations to promote the brain-computer interface industry in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, a status that carries authority to write binding local rules of the city's own. According to Jiemian News, a Chinese business news outlet, the draft defines a BCI as technology that opens an information channel between the brain and external devices for coordinated interaction between biological and machine intelligence, and states that the municipal government shall write BCI industry development into the city's economic and social development plan and its science and innovation plan. On data, the report says processing brain data and other sensitive personal information would require separate written consent from the individual, alongside strict compliance with national rules on cross-border data transfer; legislating specifically for the BCI industry in special economic zone regulation form is a first in China.