Consumer privacy protection has been written into an article in
Shanghai's revised regulations on the protection of consumer rights
and interests, which takes effect Wednesday.
With the development of information industry, consumers often are
asked to provide their private information for some Internet
services. But there are no effective methods to protect the
consumers' privacy, which is frequently misused.
Since private information can be very useful for marketing, it is
often passed on to other companies without permission. A man with
the surname of Zhou provided his mobile phone number when he
registered an e-mail address at a web site and then he constantly
received junk messages.
According to the regulation, consumers' private information,
including their name, gender, job, educational background, income,
address, marriage and diseases, cannot be disclosed to anyone else
without their permission. Consumers can ask compensation for the
loss of their privacy.
(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2003)