Personal information needs better protection

POLICE IN WENZHOU, East China's Zhejiang province, recently busted a gang selling photographs of people holding their own ID cards in hand. Fawan.com comments:

The illegal chain involved at least 11 suspects. But by the time the police hunted them down, they had sold more than 1.1 million photos of people holding their own ID cards. Which has put all the victims at great risk, especially of being targeted by frauds.

Reports said a primary source of the photos were smartphone apps. In a survey conducted by China Consumers' Association last month, 85.2 percent of the respondents said they had experienced personal information disclosure through apps, and feared their personal information could be used by frauds.

Worse, once leaked, personal information can be easily copied and resold to other illegal businesses, creating more uncertainties and risks for the victims. In the CCA survey, 61.2 percent of the respondents said they "I agree" to the terms for protection of privacy of apps because they have no option. If they choose "I disagree", the apps will not be available for use.

For long, the police have reminded people to avoid uploading their personal information on unnecessary apps or websites.

However, the problem of "no other choice than agreement" cannot be solved only with people's higher sense of security.

Stricter regulations can prevent smartphone apps from collecting people's personal information at will. And if an app is found collecting unnecessary personal information, regulators must intervene and address the problem.

It is, however, necessary for some agencies such as social security departments and traffic police to collect people's personal information.

Still, such agencies must build firewalls to protect the personal information they collect and regulate their staff so as to prevent hackers or certain staff members from stealing and selling the personal information for profit.