Report: Most netizens' privacy compromised

A fraudulent mobile app on is shut down, on July 23, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

Under a new cybersecurity law, Web operators are urged to provide safe products and services Kou Fei recently got a call at work from her mother, who was anxious to know that she was safe.

"My mom told me a stranger had called, saying I was in danger and asking for money to save me. The caller knew my name," said Kou, 27, an employee at a Beijing educational institution.

Thanks to her mother's checking, the family escaped an economic loss. But Kou said she often receives fraudulent phone calls or spam via text messages, which have disturbed her life. She said she has become more cautious and has begun to block them.

"I don't know how my private information was released. Maybe I lost it as I filled in express forms or logged in to websites," she said.

According to a report released in late July by the Internet Society of China, almost 80 percent of Chinese netizens have had their information stolen, including names and home addresses. Such personal information leaks resulted in losses of 80.5 billion yuan ($12.6 billion) last year, the report said.

In July, a Beijing court sentenced a man who made use of his position at work to acquire and sell private information. The man, whom the court referred to only by his surname, Kang, confessed that his job gave him access to abundant personal information online and said other computer talents or Web operators could easily do the same.

To regulate online service providers' duties and protect netizens' rights, the first draft of a national cybersecurity law was introduced on July 6. Among other things, it aims to protect real identities that are increasingly used in Internet registrations and transactions.

"After all, almost every offline activity has been put online in the Internet era, and real-name registration has become a part of our lives," said Li Yuxiao, a professor of Internet governance at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication.

Keeping people's private information safe online is urgent, Li said.