Officials caught up in privacy crackdown
By Li Qian |
April 27, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GOVERNMENT officials from 20 provinces and cities were among 1,700 suspects arrested in a four-day crackdown on privacy violation and the illegal selling of personal information, the Ministry of Public Security said yesterday.
Liao Jinrong, vice director with the ministry's criminal investigation department, said police had traced 38 sources of leaks, including telecom operators, industry and commerce watchdogs and civil affairs departments.
They sold detailed personal data to information agencies and illegal investigation companies, who profited from reselling the data to others, including criminal gangs, at a higher price, sometimes even 100 times the original price.
The leaks had greatly facilitated an increase in telecom frauds and spam messages, the ministry said, adding that since last Friday, 161 illegal agencies and 611 illegal investigation companies had been busted in Beijing, Hebei, Guangdong and 17 other regions.
But the ministry didn't give details about the authorities involved.
An official surnamed Liu from the Baoding City Industry and Commerce Administration in Hebei Province gathered large amounts of registered companies' information and sold each piece of information, such as an address and telephone number, for 5 yuan (79.5 US cents), the Beijing Times reported yesterday.
For shareholders' data, he asked 20 yuan for a mobile phone number or identification card number.
Between 2010 and this April, he raised nearly 60,000 yuan, the report said.
A local police official, Liu Wenping, said some unlicensed investigation companies would bribe government officials to get the private data.
Liu's violation was worse because he sold it publicly.
According to the Resident Identity Card Amendment Draft, any one working for the authorities, telecom operators, and financial institutions will face detention or jail terms if they leak private information.
China is planning to publish national standards for personal information protection in the first half of this year, officials with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
Liao Jinrong, vice director with the ministry's criminal investigation department, said police had traced 38 sources of leaks, including telecom operators, industry and commerce watchdogs and civil affairs departments.
They sold detailed personal data to information agencies and illegal investigation companies, who profited from reselling the data to others, including criminal gangs, at a higher price, sometimes even 100 times the original price.
The leaks had greatly facilitated an increase in telecom frauds and spam messages, the ministry said, adding that since last Friday, 161 illegal agencies and 611 illegal investigation companies had been busted in Beijing, Hebei, Guangdong and 17 other regions.
But the ministry didn't give details about the authorities involved.
An official surnamed Liu from the Baoding City Industry and Commerce Administration in Hebei Province gathered large amounts of registered companies' information and sold each piece of information, such as an address and telephone number, for 5 yuan (79.5 US cents), the Beijing Times reported yesterday.
For shareholders' data, he asked 20 yuan for a mobile phone number or identification card number.
Between 2010 and this April, he raised nearly 60,000 yuan, the report said.
A local police official, Liu Wenping, said some unlicensed investigation companies would bribe government officials to get the private data.
Liu's violation was worse because he sold it publicly.
According to the Resident Identity Card Amendment Draft, any one working for the authorities, telecom operators, and financial institutions will face detention or jail terms if they leak private information.
China is planning to publish national standards for personal information protection in the first half of this year, officials with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
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