China Sees Surge in Personal Information Up For Sale (reuters.com) 19
Personal data has become widely available in China and can be scooped up for pennies by insurance companies, banks, loan sharks, and scammers alike, according to sellers and financiers interviewed by Reuters. From a report: In May, China introduced its most comprehensive data protection laws to date, tightening restrictions on the sharing of private data held by financial institutions and other firms. "Personal information leaks are risky," said Susan Ning, a partner at the law firm King & Wood Mallesons in Beijing. "Such information can facilitate other crimes," she added. Insurers often buy numbers from shadowy online data sellers, who themselves have acquired the information illegally, according to people in the industry. Some companies illegally buy information from the department of motor vehicles, car licensing authorities, car sellers, or from police stations, said Michelle Hu, a partner at Boston Consulting Group who has been a consultant on insurance deals. By entering keywords like "personal data" or "cellphone data", in Chinese, Reuters found more than 30 groups created for the purpose of selling and buying personal information on Tencent's instant messaging service QQ and Baidu forum site Tieba.
Maybe the PLA has gone into business for itself? (Score:2)
China's military has been very effective in steal other countries and people information. Maybe some of their highly trained people decided to go into business for themselves on their own countrymen. I feel so bad for them...sniff...
Re: (Score:1)
Oh seriously, fruit loops, exactly how much would the identities of the wealthy from the west be worth compared to cents per hour Chinese labour. That's why sensible people are pushing for treaties to start putting an end to this stuff, rather than letting corporations run riot, three letter agencies go insane with corporate insider trading information and crippling the internet will solve no ones problem. The smallest data segment of the internet is politics because it largely is the written word, forums a
So ? (Score:1)
restrictions and legal barriers increase profits (Score:2)
This is likely an example of the natural effect of criminalizing something that has a demand that can be increased through marketing. Once it is criminalized, risk goes up, price goes up, profits go up, more people look at those profits and decide that it is worth the risk, crime organizations decide it is a profitable business that they can manage at a higher level and recruit marketers/pushers, and on and on and on.
Increase penalties, make it harder to get away with, and both price and volume will increas
And? (Score:2)
Just like everywhere else in the world. :P