A new legislative proposal from the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) aims to link every digital interaction—from financial transfers to social media behavior—directly to the electronic identities of citizens.
The Latest: “Events, transactions, and behaviors” on digital platforms would become a new category of entities subject to identification by the MPS.
- The proposal appears in the draft Law on Electronic Identification and Authentication of the ministry, which is open for public comment from July 13 to Aug. 2, 2026
The Details: Under Clause 4 of Article 7, the proposed legislation expands the range of “entities subject to electronic identification” to include online “events, transactions, and behaviors.”
- According to Articles 9 and 20, once identified, those events, transactions, and behaviors would have to be linked to the electronic identities of every participating party, including individuals and organizations with lawful ownership or management rights.
- The records would also have to include the time, location, and context in which the activity occurred.
Furthermore, under Point C, Clause 2, Article 16, accessed identifiers would have to provide records of “events, activities, transactions, behaviors, and interactions among identified entities at a specified time and location,” with those records attached to the electronic identities of the entities.
Expert’s Opinion: An unnamed legal expert, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told Luật Khoa Magazine that the proposal is “a very novel provision” reflecting Việt Nam’s ambition to build a comprehensive digital-governance system.
- They cautioned that the more ambitious the system becomes, the greater the need for a full assessment of its technological, staffing, and financial requirements—particularly its effects on citizens’ fundamental rights.
The expert said that millions or even billions of transactions may occur each day; identifying every transaction, linking it to all participating parties, and recording its time, location, and context would place immense pressure on technological infrastructure, staffing, and operating costs. They state:
“Identifying people already requires an enormous system and extensive technical infrastructure… If that system is expanded to cover events, transactions, and behaviors, the volume of data will multiply many times over.”
Asked about privacy if the bill becomes law, the expert stated that the central questions are how much information the state may collect and how it may use that information. They note:
“When every transaction or behavior is connected to an electronic identity, time, location, and context, the state would, in principle, be capable of reconstructing nearly the entire digital footprint of an individual.”
The Background: The proposed Law on Electronic Identification and Authentication was not included in the original legislative agenda of the National Assembly.
- On May 11, 2026, acting on a proposal from the MPS, the government issued Resolution No. 125, seeking to add the bill to the agenda of the legislature.
In its submission supporting the bill, the ministry argues that the existing Decree No. 69 has “not provided a sufficient legal basis for expanding the scope, entities, and models of electronic identification and authentication.”
- The MPS is therefore proposing legislation with greater legal authority.
Why It Matters: The MPS states that the bill is intended to connect the identification of “entities existing in both physical and electronic environments,” enabling authorities to directly manage transactions and administrative relationships across digital spaces.
Such a system could help prevent crime and fraud while improving administrative efficiency. However, concentrating more data would also magnify the consequences of a breach or misuse, the expert warned. Without effective technical and institutional safeguards, citizens would have legitimate grounds to fear for their digital privacy.
- “In a rule-of-law state, the greater the government’s administrative power, the stronger the controls over that power must be,” the expert said.
Citizens will want to know who can access the data, under what circumstances, how long it will be retained, and whether an independent oversight mechanism will exist.
- The expert added that building a centralized data system therefore requires a parallel investment in controls that govern how the information is used. Otherwise, the risks of abuse or expansion beyond the original purpose of the data cannot be ignored.
Hoàng Nam wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on July 23, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights to the English translation.
