Draft rule on protecting personal data gets push

Experts are calling on legislators to draw up a personal information protection law as soon as possible to provide a safe online environment under a real-name system.

Under a proposed regulation published on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's website last week, people who apply for fixed-line phone service or buy wireless Internet cards would have to present their identity cards.

The move follows the adoption of a real-name registration system for cellphone users about three years ago.

The proposal, on which public opinion has been on since April 10 and will continue through May 15, aroused discussion among experts on how to protect privacy in an era of big data.

Zhou Hanhua, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' law institute, said it is important that China creates a law to protect personal information or the invasion of privacy on the Internet will get more serious.

Although the top legislature published a decision on improving the protection of personal information at the end of 2012, "it is far from enough". Zhou said.

The legislative document is not a special law in particular to deal with problems of privacy protection in cyberspace, he said.

"We just have a legal framework and some basic principles, but all of them are difficult to enforce and cannot threaten enterprises," Zhou said.

Telecom companies that do not register and protect users' personal information would be fined up to 30,000 yuan ($4,848) under to the ministry's draft proposal.

Only if the personal information protection proposal becomes law will the problem of privacy disclosure be addressed, Zhou said.