Chinese police bust ring selling children’s private data to online educational centres

Police in eastern Jiangsu province have arrested employees of a company that sold schoolchildren’s personal data online

China has toughened its data privacy measures, including the implementation of a law protecting children’s personal information in 2019

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The Cyberspace Administration of China rolled out new rules in 2019 that raised the level of protection required for the collection, storage, use, transfer and disclosure of children’s personal information in the country. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Published: 8:00am, 19 Mar 2021Updated: 8:00am, 19 Mar 2021

Members of a syndicate that buys mainland Chinese schoolchildren’s personal information and sells the data to online education centres have been arrested by police in eastern Jiangsu province, as the country with the world’s largest internet population continues to grapple with privacy concerns.

The personal data – including the children’s age, gender, city of residence, their parents’ information and phone numbers – were sold by an unnamed local company for as low as 0.06 yuan, equivalent to less than US$0.01, according to a statement last week from Jiangsu’s Xuzhou City police.

The unnamed online education centres use the data they acquire to send spam calls to the children’s parents. The syndicate receives a commission for every successful sign-up. Typically, Chinese K-12 pupils – referring to those in kindergarten to 12th grade – take extracurricular tutoring on top of their studies on campus to perform well in examinations.

Their operations were initially uncovered by police in January, following the arrest of several suspects connected to a company with more than 20 employees dealing in the illegal trade. Two of the company’s bosses are now in custody, state broadcaster China Central Television reported on Tuesday.

Police in Xuzhou City, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, uncovered a syndicate selling private data of schoolchildren to online training centres. Photo: WeChat

Online leaks of personal information remain a common problem in mainland China, where lax controls over the collection, storage and use of individual digital data persist. Authorities have regularly launched crackdowns in response to consumer demand for better protection.