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. — SCMP

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.