When the phone numbers of 600 stars appeared on an online forum one year ago, some were infuriated and some happy, while more people just looked on from a distance. However, more and more "standers-by" begin to find out quite soon that their own lives are brazenly invaded by different types of strangers.

For instance, advertisements of baby articles rush to their house soon after the infant was born. The insurance agency will make a cold call to sell auto insurance right after a new car was purchased. Even when one is just divorced, some dating agency may call and offer "matchmaking" service immediately.

On a website that claims to possess the information of 90 million people, the reporter notices that after inputting a person's name, the relevant phone number, address, company, contact number, MSN and QQ number are all displayed on the webpage at once. It is learnt that this information mostly come from departments and units that own a large quantity of data. Some units with governmental functions have vast amount of information on individuals, and people will also take down their detailed personal information while buying a car, seeing a doctor, opening a bank card, job hunting or even seeking a date. Tempted by benefits, organizations and their staff members that have access to this information quite likely steal them and sell to the outside world for a profit.

It is learnt that at present, China's legal protection of individual information is relatively weak, and what protection there exists is "indirect" which means personal information or privacy is mostly protected through individual reputation. The existing law prescribes that the infringement of individual reputation is not actionable in law until it has caused some damage. As for most "annoyed" victims, the consequence of infringement is not apparent enough to support a lawsuit.

Statistics show that 50-odd nations in the world have established legal systems to protect individual information. The legislation of the "Personal Information Protection Law" is not yet listed in the legislative agenda of China's National People's Congress (NPC). At the NPC and National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) last year, deputies and members kept calling for this law. Many NPC deputies have put forward similar proposals one after another. At this year's NPC and CPPCC, NPC deputy Zhang Xuedong noted that enacting the "Personal Information Protection Law" is of great urgency.
 
Editor: Yan