Chinese lawmakers are calling for the creation of better, more effective response systems to protect personal information and, as a result, lessen the number of cases related to infringement, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Last year, the Ministry of Public Security was able to arrest 4,261 suspects involved in 1,886 cases of infringement of personal information, the agency said last Friday, March 10.
Of the 4,000-plus suspects, 391 were heavily involved in the stock market, banking, telecommunications, education, e-commerce, and delivery services.
China lost about 91.5 billion yuan (approximately $13.2 billion) last year, all because of leaked personal information, fraud, and junk messages, the Internet Society of China said, according to Xinhua News Agency. In 2015, China lost roughly 80 billion yuan.
In addition to the figures, Tencent, one of the leading Internet companies in China, estimated that there are 1.5 million people in the country that engage in illegal business online. Effective response systems for web safety can lead to a significant decrease in infringement and fraud cases and put a stopper to the loss of funds.
“The government shall create an industry for web data safety. It should coordinate telecommunications, finance and Internet companies to better handle information leaks,” said Ma Huateng, CEO and chairman of Tencent and a national lawmaker.
“A system needs to be built for people to make reports of information leaks so that relevant organizations can perform damage control as early as possible,” Ma added.
Lawmaker Shao Zhiqing, who is also the deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, also said that cutting off the profit chain can also help decrease information leaks in China.
“We must establish a rule governing the trade and communication of big data. Controllability and safety are the most important thing in data flow,” Shao said.
As of date, Chinese companies are rarely given punitive measures in the event of information leaks.