Protecting personal data against social media platforms

Legal Consulting Office of Lao Dong Newspaper answers:

Article 29 of the 2025 Law on Personal Data Protection (effective from January 1, 2026) stipulates the protection of personal data for social networking platforms and online communication services as follows:

Organizations and individuals providing social network services and online communication services are responsible for the following:

1. Clearly notify the content of personal data collected when the subject of personal data installs and uses social networks and online media services; not illegally collect personal data and outside the scope agreed upon with customers;

2. Not being required to provide images or videos containing full content or part of personal papers as an authentication factor for the account;

3. Provide options that allow users to refuse to collect and share data files (called cookies);

4. Provide the option of "not following" or only being allowed to follow the use of social networks and online media services with the consent of the user;

5. Not eavesdropping, eavesdropping or recording calls and reading text messages without the consent of the subject of personal data, unless otherwise provided by law;

6. Publicize security policies, clearly explain how to collect, use and share personal data; provide users with a mechanism to access, edit, delete data and establish privacy for personal data, report security and privacy violations; protect personal data of Vietnamese citizens when transferring data across borders; build a process to handle violations of personal data protection quickly and effectively.

Thus, from January 1, 2026, the protection of personal data for social network platforms is regulated as above.