Two men who could have been selling your location information to debt collectors (not that readers of The Nanjinger owe anyone anything, of course) have been up in court in Nanjing, receiving stiff penalties, in the very first case of its kind in China.
On 24 March, the Nanjing Gulou Court opened a public session to hear the first nationwide case as to violations of citizens’ parking-location data.
It was determined therein that since June, 2020, the defendants had hacked into various online car-parking systems, such as “Prompt Park” (捷停车), and obtained real-time location information of users thereof. They then sold this on to a third party, surnamed Xie, who provided such information to debt-collector agencies.
It was also found that the defendants had in some cases installed GPS devices on vehicles owned by citizens whose locations were desired to be known by the debt-collector agencies.
Once of the defendants, surnamed Li, was captured last year by police, while the other, surnamed Huang, subsequently surrendered. The court trial found that through their actions, Huang had made illegal profits in excess of ¥1.13 million, while Li had earned himself over ¥240,000.
The court held that the real-time locations and routes taken by citizens’ vehicles constitute information that can reflect and identify the activities of specific natural persons.
As a result, such information falls under criminal law in so far as it seeks to protect the interests of citizens as relating to their freedom of movement and personal safety.
Such therefore remain the personal information of citizens, as regional-media outlet, The Paper, reported on 24 March.
Huang was sentenced to 4 years, 11 months imprisonment, with a fine of ¥1.2 million; while Li received jail time of 3 years, 3 months imprisonment, with a fine of ¥250,000. The case against Xie is being handled separately.
