Privacy of income data

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-29 07:29

Shanghai has set up a system to check personal income. For an efficient implementation of the system many other supportive measures should also be adopted, says an article in Guangzhou Daily. The following is an excerpt:

To avoid those with medium and even high income from intermingling with poor people in order to get a low-rent house and other government subsidies, Shanghai recently established a system to solicit information and audit applicants' income.

In fact, it is a widely applied measure in Western countries to record information on citizens' income. But as a country lacking such a culture and policymaking traditions, China needs to build a similar system with attention for the following aspects:

First of all, although the newly-built system now aims only at picking out applicants unqualified for low-rent houses and minimum living allowance, enough room should be left to further promote it to other fields like tax rebate, social and medical insurances.

Take the US as an example. Everyone there has a special social security number so that all information on their lives can be reached conveniently - of course legally - if necessary.

Second, privacy of those under check should be fully respected. Though China has not yet established a national law in protecting individuals' privacy, respecting people's privacy has become an accepted social custom here.

On the one hand, relevant departments must keep the information under their survey secret and avoid leaking them to unauthorized persons. The system will be supported by people only if it makes them feel safe about their personal information.

What is more important is that, after income transparency is ensured for common people, public servants and government officials should not be excluded from it.

(China Daily 07/29/2008 page8)