Officer jailed, sold people’s private info (2)

Most who have been convicted of the crime have been from the finance or telecommunications industries and it is rare for a government employee to be convicted of such a crime, it reported.

"The agencies that use a citizen's personal information during their work should make related rules and build a monitoring system to step up management and prevent information from being leaked," Liu Tao, a professor with the Chinese People's Public Security University, told the Global Times.

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) launched a nationwide campaign in April to crack down on the trading of personal information.

Around 1,700 suspects were arrested and 611 companies that conducted illegal debt repayment were closed.

An MPS official told the Xinhua News Agency that selling personal information may lead to serious consequences as it violates national information security, causes fraud and can be utilized by criminals.

"There should be harsher punishment for the sellers," Liu said.