The State Administration for Market Regulation announced two new national standards

There is a new standard
for the protection of personal information in "express bills"

□ Wan Jing, reporter of this newspaper

There is a new standard for the protection of personal information of "express bills", and the leakage of personal information of "express bills" that causes headaches will be curbed.

Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced two national standards, "Express Electronic Waybill" and "General Mailing Address Code Rules", which clearly stated that the express electronic waybill should avoid displaying complete personal information such as the name, contact number, and address of the recipient, and the name of the recipient should be hidden by more than 1 Chinese character, the contact number should be hidden by more than 6 digits, and the address should be hidden by the unit room number.

At present, these two new national standards have been officially implemented. The new national standard is based on summarizing the practical experience of standardization in the postal industry in recent years, integrating the latest scientific research achievements such as new technologies and new materials, which plays an important role in promoting the high-quality development of the postal industry and better meeting the needs of the people for a better life.

Better meet the needs of industry development

Postal express is an indispensable part of modern production and life, and China has become a major express country with an annual express business volume of more than 1000 billion pieces. At present, the postal industry is gradually transforming from traditional labor-intensive industries to labor- and technology-intensive industries, and some standards can no longer meet the needs of economic and social development.

According to Xu Changxing, deputy director of the Standards and Technology Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, the national standard of "Express Electronic Waybill" is based on the postal industry standard released in 2015. The national standard regulates the category, number of layers, specifications and dimensions of express electronic waybills, recommends express delivery enterprises to use a combined waybill, and cancels the triple waybill in the original industry standard; It clarifies the requirements of different areas and information content, such as the code number area, destination information area, recipient information area, sender information area, internal content information area, and signature area, and further optimizes the regional division and layout. In particular, the standard puts forward a series of technical indicators such as paper, adhesive backing, ink, font size, hidden and encryption treatment, and adhesive physical properties used in express electronic waybills, and gives inspection methods to further standardize the production, use and testing of express electronic waybills, so as to better meet the needs of personal information protection of delivery users and the green development of the express delivery industry.

The national standard of "General Mailing Address Coding Rules" conforms to the needs of the digital transformation and development of China's postal industry, and puts forward the coding principles, coding rules and coding maintenance requirements for universal mailing address codes. The general mailing address code given in the standard consists of two parts: country (region) code, satellite navigation and positioning system code, delivery location code and other basic codes, as well as extended codes such as enterprise code and article attribute code. The release and implementation of this standard for the first time realizes the unification of address information and coding system of the whole industry, which is conducive to solving the problems of different codes, high maintenance costs and inability to share among various delivery enterprises, and promoting the realization of common receipt, delivery, sorting and distribution; It is conducive to facilitating users to place orders, improve user experience, and assist couriers to achieve path optimization and location navigation.

In July 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other eight departments jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Standardization of Green Packaging for Express Delivery. Subsequently, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the State Post Bureau and other departments jointly formulated and released more than ten national standards and industry standards such as "Green Product Evaluation Express Packaging Supplies". The issuance and implementation of the national standard "Express Electronic Waybill" will further promote the replacement of paper waybills by electronic waybills, further improve the express green packaging standard system including envelopes, boxes, bags, container containers, packaging fillers, tape, etc., and better support the comprehensive management of express packaging.

The General Mailing Address Coding Rules is a basic standard to support the digitalization and intelligence of the postal industry. In terms of the digitalization of the postal industry, China has issued nearly 30 national standards and industry standards, involving classification and code, data elements, information exchange, intelligent equipment and other aspects. Among them, as the basic basis for mail express receipt, delivery, sorting, transportation and delivery, the digitization of the delivery address is an important guarantee for automatic sorting and intelligent delivery.

Suppress the display of complete personal information

In recent years, as an information carrier to record the user's delivery behavior, the information leakage problem of express electronic waybill has aroused widespread concern in the society. After the real-name system of express delivery was fully popularized, a small express bill had all personal information such as name, telephone number, and address, and the express bill became the hardest hit area for personal information leakage.

In April 2022, the State Post Bureau, together with the Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China, launched a special action on personal information security governance in the field of postal express delivery, severely cracking down on illegal leakage, trading, and delivery service information. At the same time, the State Post Bureau has also initiated the formulation and revision of relevant regulations and standards, focusing on improving the industry's personal information security protection system.

It is understood that the national standard of "Express Electronic Waybill" has set up a special chapter to strengthen the protection of personal information. This includes suppressing the display of complete personal information. Express delivery enterprises, e-commerce business entities, etc. shall take measures to avoid displaying complete personal information of the recipient and sender on the electronic waybill. The name of the recipient should hide more than 1 Chinese character, the contact number should hide more than 6 digits, and the address should hide the unit room number.

It is recommended that personal information be fully encrypted. Express delivery enterprises, e-commerce business entities, etc. should use technical means such as radio frequency identification, mobile phone virtual security number, and electronic paper to fully encrypt the personal information on the express electronic waybill.

Regulate the permission to read personal information-related content. The hidden and encrypted information content on the express electronic waybill is limited to the express delivery company and its authorized third parties and relevant management departments, and can be legally read by relevant equipment.

According to Tu Gang, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Post Bureau, the national standard of "Express Electronic Waybill" implements the Personal Information Protection Law and other laws and regulations, absorbs the useful practical experience of current express delivery enterprises, makes specific and clear provisions on personal information display, encryption processing, etc., and reorganizes the information content contained in the waybill, further optimizes the design layout of the face sheet, and effectively improves the security of the express electronic waybill. With the wide adoption of national standards, the production and use of express electronic waybills will continue to be standardized, the public's intuitive perception of the protection of express electronic waybill information will be significantly improved, and the information security management in the express field will be effectively strengthened.

According to Yang Weidong, a professor at the Institute of Rule of Law and Government of China University of Political Science and Law, in order to prevent the express delivery slip from leaking personal information, as early as a few years ago, some express delivery companies and platforms tried to launch a privacy sheet, some replaced the middle four digits of the recipient's mobile phone number with an asterisk, and some withheld the specific address. The implementation of the new national standard will play a good role in regulating the phenomenon of wanton leakage of personal information on the express bill, but the essence depends on the self-discipline of the enterprise itself. Express delivery companies should establish internal control mechanisms for personal information protection, sign confidentiality agreements with employees, strictly implement punishment mechanisms for breach of contract, and strictly conduct security monitoring mechanisms for information processing in links such as receipt, delivery, sorting, transportation, and delivery.

Accelerate the iterative upgrading of national standards

With the advent of the mobile Internet era, e-commerce and online shopping are booming, and the public's demand for convenience, accuracy, security, privacy, etc. is increasing. Standardization plays a supporting and leading role in the high-quality development of the postal industry.

According to Liu Ying, deputy director of the Department of Policy and Regulation of the State Post Bureau, the State Post Bureau attaches great importance to the standardization of the postal industry, and regards standardization as an important starting point for improving the governance system and improving governance capabilities. Since the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", the State Post Bureau has issued more than 60 national standards and industry standards, especially increasing the research and development of green packaging standards, information standards, safety standards and service standards, which has played an important role in promoting the high-quality development of the industry.

In addition, the State Post Bureau also attaches importance to improving the coordination of scientific and technological standards, and regards the research and development and application of intelligent security inspection system, intelligent video surveillance system, intelligent voice complaint handling system and universal mailing address code "three wisdom and one code" in the postal industry as the top priority of scientific and technological work, and coordinates all parties to accelerate the promotion. In this process, the State Post Bureau pays special attention to the simultaneous development of standards, using standards as a means and bridge to promote the transformation and popularization of achievements.

In December 2020, the State Post Bureau issued the Guidelines for the Construction of the Standard System for the Postal Industry in the 12th Five-Year Plan. In July 2022, the State Post Bureau publicly solicited comments on the Measures for the Administration of Postal Industry Standardization (Revised Draft) (Draft for Comments). All these provide a strong policy guarantee for the standardization of the postal industry.

Xu Changxing also disclosed that in the future, the iterative upgrading of the current national standards for the postal industry will be accelerated. The national standard of "Express Delivery Service", which is currently being revised, will put forward new requirements in product classification, service stratification, cost zoning, greening, intelligence, etc., and respond to the people's new expectations for express delivery services in a timely manner.

In addition, on the basis of revising the two core standards of "Universal Postal Service" and "Express Service", we will further supplement the formulation of cold chain fresh food and agricultural product delivery service standards to support and improve the rural delivery logistics system. Support the development of new formats and new model standards that adapt to the development of cross-border e-commerce and rural e-commerce, and support the creation of a delivery service system with better quality and more flexible and diversified forms.