A British man and his American wife were arrested by Shanghai authorities for selling the personal information of local residents.
The suspects, Peter William Humphrey (57, UK) and his wife Zu Yingzheng (60, US), set up a consulting company called Chinawhys Company Limited in Hong Kong in 2002 while based in Beijing. However, the company had no fixed location or employees. In 2004, they registered another company in Shanghai and in 2009 set up an office in Xuhui District and hired ten employees.
Authorities found that from 2003, Humphreys and Zu gathered vast amounts of personal information such as address, family members, exit and entry records and car and housing records from local citizens and sold them on for a profit. Their customers were mainly multi-national companies including manufacturing enterprises, financial institutions and law firms. They allegedly had around 100 clients per annum and typically made up to one million RMB per year. Authorities found over 500 reports, many of which have been discovered to contain personal information of citizens.
Source: ifeng.com
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Keywords: foreign couple arrested in Shanghai Peter Humphrey
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It's very interesting that this is illegal. Especially since I know that my mobile phone number has been sold.
Aug 29, 2013 10:23 Report Abuse
Computers, even in China, do the same thing every second you are on the internet. They are called "cookies"?
Aug 29, 2013 07:22 Report Abuse
there are no cookies involved anywhere. these computers aren't even on the internet. next time you're in some countryside farm, go to the nearest county with an entry-exit bureau. make up some story to get them to look up your hotel records. you might be shocked at how much you've spent :) but basically that is where this data comes from. it is quite common for some people to have a person inside the psb doing this for them.
Aug 31, 2013 09:46 Report Abuse
this ... exists in China in general. psb's selling entry-exit records, copies of hotel stay records based on id/passport numbers... unfortunately is more common than you'd think. hint: these records can be pulled up from manager-level computers in psb's at countryside farm locations... (counties, officially)
Aug 28, 2013 11:43 Report Abuse
A very stupid thing to do. I'm guessing the American (really Chinese) woman was the instigator of this crime. I'm sure as there are foreigners involved they will punished much harsher than if they were locals. Again it's nothing compared to the thousands of Chinese involved with credit card fraud around the world.
Aug 28, 2013 10:46 Report Abuse
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