When GDPR Instincts Fail You: Mobile App Compliance Under China's PIPL
What happens when two data protection philosophies collide inside the same codebase. A live Conversation with Debbie Reynolds.
You know GDPR. But when your company launches an app in China, the rules change in ways that catch even experienced privacy professionals off guard. No legitimate interests. Government-controlled cross-border transfers. A regulator that has pulled 500 apps from stores. Join us for a practical conversation about what European companies actually need to know when their mobile apps meet Chinese data protection law.
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The Future of Privacy
The Future of Privacy is the theme of a webinar series developed in collaboration with Eyd and Personverndagene. We will air approximately one webinar per month until Personverndagene kicks off in mid-September 2026.
Agenda
You're a European privacy professional and compliance hero. You know GDPR inside out. Then your company launches an app in China, and every instinct you've built starts working against you.
China's Personal Information Protection Law — the PIPL — looks like GDPR on paper. But the operational reality is something else. No legitimate interests. Government-supervised cross-border transfers. A regulator that has already pulled 500 apps from stores. And a list that tells you exactly which data fields your app category is allowed to collect.
This isn't a legal briefing. It's a conversation about what happens when two data protection philosophies collide inside the same codebase.
In this conversation we will explore:
- Why the absence of legitimate interests changes everything about how mobile apps handle SDKs and analytics in China
- How China's prescribed data fields for 39 app categories compare to GDPR's principle-based approach to data minimization
- What "separate consent" actually means in practice, and why it's not the same as a GDPR consent flow
- The cross-border transfer maze: when your app data needs government pre-approval to leave China
- What MIIT's enforcement campaigns look like on the ground, and why European companies get caught off guard
Guest
Debbie Reynolds
CEO & Chief Data Privacy Officer
Debbie, known as "The Data Diva," has spent over 20 years advising multinational corporations on cross-border data privacy, data flows, and regulatory strategy. Her podcast reaches listeners in 157 countries.
Host
Vibeke Specht
Co-Founder of Peak Privacy
CIPP/E certified privacy professional and author of "From GDPR Confusion to Privacy First Marketing".