Up to 81 percent of Chinese people have received calls from strangers who have gotten hold of their personal information, however, more than half don't know what they can do if they are harassed by nuisance calls, according to a survey released on Monday, media reported Tuesday.
The survey, conducted by the China Youth University of Political Studies and a think tank affiliated with the Sichuan Daily newspaper, revealed that over 70 percent of the more than 1 million respondents surveyed said the information security problem is "severe," the Beijing-based Legal Daily reported Tuesday.
The report added that over 81 percent of the surveyed people said they have received calls from strangers who knew their name and workplace, and 53 percent said they were harassed by advertising calls after they browsed certain websites.
When asked how they would respond to nuisance calls, 71 percent said they just hang up the phone or ignore the call; 63 percent blacklist or reject the calls; and only 20 percent said they would officially complain.
In terms of taking legal measures, over half of the survey participants said they do not know what they can do, with 44 percent saying they would likely do nothing due to the complexity of the procedures and the high cost, said the report. Around 14 percent said that even if they did something, they think there would be little result, the Legal Daily reported
The report suggests that China should adopt legislation on personal information protection since this has not yet been given sufficient judicial attention.
On August 19, Xu Yuyu, an 18-year-old high school graduate from East China's Shandong Province, died after she lost to telecoms fraudsters about 9,900 yuan ($1,500), meant for university tuition fees.
