Shanghai call to better protect personal information

Shanghai’s deputies to the National People’s Congress are calling for a comprehensive law to protect personal information.

Chen Li, NPC deputy and general manager of China Mobile’s Shanghai branch, said better protection is needed because of the rapid growth of Big Data and cloud computing.

“With the arrival of the Big Data era and the development of information technology, as well as the popularity of the Internet, there are more and more services and applications related to personal information,” said Chen.

“But now there are too many sources collecting our information, which can lead to the leaking of information and some illegal information transactions.”

Once a person’s personal information is leaked, potential threats such as telecoms scams often follow as a result, Chen said in his proposal.

Although some areas of existing laws and regulations do offer some protection of personal information, there is no unified standard on the supervision and management of such information, Chen said.

Furthermore, some areas of the collection, storage and use of personal information are not covered under current regulations, allowing violators to go unpunished sometimes.

It is also difficult for victims whose details have been leaked to get compensation. The proposed law clarifies under what circumstances a victim can file a law suit.

“You never know where your personal information will be used,” said Zhou Yanfang, an NPC deputy and a manager at the China Pacific Insurance Co.

“So I think protecting people’s private information is what we should do,” Zhou added.