Top court highlights major personal information infringement cases

China's top court unveiled details of five major cases involving personal information infringement on Friday, emphasizing the need to safeguard data security and protect individuals' rights in the digital age.

"As technology advances, criminal methods have become increasingly sophisticated and concealed," the Supreme People's Court said in a statement. "This has resulted in the theft, leakage and sale of sensitive personal information, often due to inadequate data management by certain governments, businesses and online platforms. Such vulnerabilities have even led to the emergence of professional information thieves."

"Criminals leverage acquired personal data to engage in activities such as fraud, extortion and doxing, among other illegal acts, which severely compromise individuals' personal and financial safety and pose substantial threats to public safety and social order," the court said.

Doxing, a term that originated in Chinese cyberspace, involves the malicious exposure of personal information, including names, ID numbers, phone numbers, home addresses and social media accounts. The act often incites netizens to launch verbal attacks, harassment or cyberbullying.

One of the five landmark cases involved doxing. In that case, two defendants were sentenced to prison terms and fined by a Beijing court after being found guilty of illegally obtaining and posting more than 900 million pieces of personal information online to insult others.

The court also disclosed a case in which a defendant used a Trojan program to access data on more than 290,000 women who had received the HPV vaccine, and then used the information to commit telecom fraud.

"The lawful and orderly flow and reasonable use of personal information are essential to balancing security and development," the top court said, urging courts nationwide to continue imposing severe punishments for crimes involving the infringement of personal information and intensify efforts to combat related offenses such as online violence and fraud.

It also instructed judges to strengthen legal education on personal information protection, safeguard people's legitimate rights and meet the public's growing demand for a better quality of life.