More nabbed in personal info trade crackdown

BEIJING - Chinese police have apprehended 1,936 suspects in an ongoing campaign against the illegal trading of individuals' private information, up from the 1,700-plus announced just three days ago.

According to a statement released Friday by the Ministry of Public Security, 978 of all the suspects are currently in police custody for criminal offenses and 44 "major sources" selling citizens' personal information have been destroyed.

The personal information involved in these major sources' trading schemes came from a range of fields, including telecommunications, commerce, banking, justice, public security and civil affairs departments, said the statement.

Sellers are usually civil servants, clerks, officials or temporary employees with these departments that have access to personal information, the ministry said.

In the statement, the ministry vowed a long-term, high-profile crackdown on such crimes as well as severe punishments for perpetrators.

The action has won support from netizens, some of whom complained that they received numerous promotional calls from unknown sources after submitting their names and phone numbers for certain services, such as occupation exams and real estate purchases.

"Absolutely support the crackdown, refuse to be a transparent person without privacy," user "dragonfy" commented on the Weibo microblog platform.

Netizen "Lan San Lao Weng" urged improved legislation to protect people's personal information while continuing the crackdown and supervision.