The GDPR provides strict protection for personal data from misuse by online companies. Chinese citizens use a lot of personal data in their daily lives too, and the issue of data privacy protection has been a lively topic here for months. Our reporter Chen Tong has more from the Sino-US big data global forum.

Coming just two months after the scandal regarding Facebook's release of users' personal information, the highlight of this year's Sino-US big data global forum has been, of course, data protection. Keynote speaker James Wang says the development of big data in China is rapid -- and that the utilization of information in some ways is even faster than in the United States. But given the rapid developments in China, how to use the information in a safe way remains an issue. Wang believes the government should play a big role.

JAMES WANG, CHAIRMAN MAXAUR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY "Just like in the US or Europe, speaking of data privacy, one of the big fact is the government has to step in. This is no longer just like an IT issue, it's like a social issue. The government has to step in to help us to personal regulation together that IT can catch cup. Government and society have to step in. GDPR is an excellent example. It's really a big event going on right now. In term of China, we can learn from GDPR to figure out what we should do."

The Chinese government has been issuing guidelines to encourage the utilization of big data, but no specific laws to protect the leakage of personal information. The Chinese public, however, is concerned with the safety of personal data. A report from research company Veritas shows 86 percent of Chinese surveyed expressed strong concern about the leakage of their personal information. Some industry insiders believe it will take a while to learn how this can be best accomplished.

BEN HU, CHAIRMAN DAMA CHINA "I think certainly we are making progress including those Facebook cases that we will learn. Whether we can totally avoid this stuff, it's a learning process. It's part of the big data and machine learning lessons learned. It's an endless learning process.

Personal data protection issues have the potential to become very significant in China. The value of the country's big data industry reached 470 billion yuan last year, a year-on-year increase of 30 percent.