Officials promise crackdowns on leaking of personal information

China is to introduce laws on the protection of personal information and intensify crackdowns on the illegal collection and sale of such data, the Cyberspace Administration of China announced on Sunday.

The announcement came after a Xinhua news agency report saying that personal information transactions were rampant and some bank clerks were stealing clients' information to sell on social networking sites at prices from as low as 0.5 yuan (8 US cents).

Information would typically include a person's name, phone number, address, company and credit card issuer. Some information was being sold in packages of 100,000 items, priced at 2,000 yuan.

Yang Chunyan, an official at the administration, said it was easy these days for swindlers to get personal information online.

The government would be introducing laws and technologies to promote Internet security and fight cyber crimes, Yang said. "The priority is intensifying the monitoring of online service suppliers and crackdowns on illegal personal information collection, leakage and transactions."

By last year's third quarter, 436 million credit cards had been issued in China, according to the central bank, the People's Bank of China.

The three major causes of credit card information leaks were weak governance in some banks, poor safety awareness by card users and third parties illegally recording their customers' information.

Besides credit card details, hospital patients' information, online marketplaces' customer information and even hotel records were being traded online, Xinhua found.

A Shanghai man, surnamed Liu, told Xinhua he had received countless calls recommending medicines after he had a surgery in 2010.

One online group selling patients' private information, even classified it by disease.

A stock market investor in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, who paid for stock investment software, then found he was deluged with calls from unlicensed financial companies, Xinhua reported.

One seller dealing in Taobao customers' information told Xinhua that there was a huge demand for personal information.

His cheapest deal provided 30,000 pieces of information for just 20 yuan.

Instant messaging tools such as QQ and WeChat must protect their users' information, Yang said, adding that it was also up to individuals to be aware of the risks.