Protecting personal data

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, has released a document stressing the importance of strengthening personal information protection.

Strengthening the law to better protect people's personal information online is a much needed step given that China has the world's largest population of internet users and the fastest-growing internet economy.

It is now common for people to receive a variety of junk cell phone messages or business promotion calls, which do not inevitably cause serious consequences, but are symptomatic of personal information being misused. And the media reported last year that 300 yuan ($43.50) could buy the information of 50,000 infants born in almost all major hospitals in Shenzhen. All this highlights the urgent need for people's personal information to be better protected.