While netizens have various opinions on the impact of the policy, they are unanimous in calling for strict protection of online ID information.

"I doubt the government's ability to ensure the security of our information," wrote a Sina Weibo user with the screenname "yingluobiezhi," adding that he fears his personal information could end up being disclosed.

A survey published by the China Center for Information Industry Development in May 2012 showed that more than 60 percent of respondents said they had suffered personal information theft.

Internet users who have accounts on popular commercial or social networking sites are at the greatest risk of having their information stolen, according to Feng Qiang, an employee of a commercial website, adding that netizens' personal information is managed by the websites' operators.

Operators should protect their users' privacy and public security departments should play a supervisory role, Feng said.

A commentary posted on people.com.cn Wednesday said some netizens have misread the intentions of the new rules, which aim to strengthen protection of citizens' online information and contain many provisions in this respect.

It said real-name registration has been the order of the day, as most of China's 513 million netizens have done online shopping. As some netizens fear the so-called compulsory real-name registration, they are probably unaware that they have already registered their real identities online.

"Therefore, it's necessary to make rules to protect netizens' online information," said the comment, urging netizens not to misinterpret the intention of the legislators and blindly echo ungrounded criticisms of the rules.

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