PERSONAL information of 3,000 homeowners at an upmarket residential estate in Futian District has been posted online.
The list was accidentally discovered by an unidentified homeowner at the Le Parc estate in Futian CBD on Nov. 30, when he typed his name into search engine Baidu.com for fun, Chinese-language newspapers reported Wednesday.
His name appeared on the 144-page list, which provided home addresses, bank card numbers, mobile phone numbers and car numbers of more than 3,000 residents at Le Parc, the reports said.
The list was posted online Nov. 16, he said. It recorded 87 visits and was downloaded 16 times.
He copied the list and posted it on a QQ group chat room Nov. 30.
Ren Hegang, head of the Le Parc homeowners committee, a body consisting of elected homeowner representatives to protect their rights, said he was shocked at the data.
At first thought, I called the estate management office to ask whether it was behind this because it has all our detailed information, he said. They denied it and promised to help us with a further investigation.
The committee then called Baidu asking it to delete the list, to which it agreed.
Futian police have launched an investigation.
First we have to find out who posted the list online and the motive, an officer surnamed Liu said.
Lawyer Yu Xiang said it was wrong to spread other people s personal information online but not illegal and the least victims could ask for was compensation for psychological trauma.
Earlier reports said trading homeowners personal information had been an open secret among some industries such as property brokers, interior designers and retailers.
A number of Shenzhen companies under the guise of technology firms reportedly sell personal information online and even look for franchises to expand their business. Franchisees can obtain all information the firm holds for just 20,000 yuan (US$2,985).
In China s first known case of violating the security of personal information, a man was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Guangzhou.
Zhou Jianping set up an office in Guangzhou in November last year selling personal information including phone numbers and call histories.
In December 2008, a man surnamed Lin bought the phone numbers of 14 officials from Zhou. Lin then pretended to be the vice mayor of Zhuhai in Guangdong, and defrauded his relatives of 50,000 yuan, conspiring with another six accomplices.
On five occasions, the group amassed 830,000 yuan by falsely using the name of officials and cities including the Party secretary of Foshan and En ping cities. They were sentenced to three to 11 years in prison.
In another case, a China Telecom employee in Shenzhen was charged with selling personal information in November.
From October 2009 to July this year, he allegedly sent more than 500,000 details of confidential personal information of China Telecom customers to buyers via e-mail, earning more than 2,000 yuan in commission. (Mu Zi)
