Personal information needs better protection

POLICE IN WENZHOU, East China’s Zhejiang province, recently busted a gang selling photographs of people holding their own ID cards in hand. Fawan.com comments:

The illegal chain involved at least 11 suspects. But by the time the police hunted them down, they had sold more than 1.1 million photos of people holding their own ID cards. Which has put all the victims at great risk, especially of being targeted by frauds.

Reports said a primary source of the photos were smartphone apps. In a survey conducted by China Consumers’ Association last month, 85.2 percent of the respondents said they had experienced personal information disclosure through apps, and feared their personal information could be used by frauds.

Worse, once leaked, personal information can be easily copied and resold to other illegal businesses, creating more uncertainties and risks for the victims.

In the CCA survey, 61.2 percent of the respondents said they “I agree” to the terms for protection of privacy of apps because they have no option. If they choose “I disagree”, the apps will not be available for use. 在线开方(zàixiàn kāifāng)

The National Health Commission recently released a notice saying informatization of medical institutions should be further advanced so that doctors can issue prescriptions online to treat some common diseases and chronic diseases as long as they know the patient’s entire medical history and physical traits. The policy is also aimed at enabling pharmacists to check prescriptions online and deliver the required medicines.

For long, the police have reminded people to avoid uploading their personal information on unnecessary apps or websites.

However, the problem of “no other choice than agreement” cannot be solved only with people’s higher sense of security.

Stricter regulations can prevent smartphone apps from collecting people’s personal information at will. And if an app is found collecting unnecessary personal information, regulators must intervene and address the problem.

It is, however, necessary for some agencies such as social security departments and traffic police to collect people’s personal information.

Still, such agencies must build firewalls to protect the personal information they collect and regulate their staff so as to prevent hackers or certain staff members from stealing and selling the personal information for profit.

The move may bring convenience and save time for many patients with chronic diseases, while making medical services more efficient. With the change of lifestyle and the rising aging population, chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure have rapidly increased. Statistics show China has almost 300 million people suffering from chronic diseases.

Unlike acute diseases, the medical treatment of chronic diseases is relatively fixed after diagnosis. In some cases, a person with a chronic disease has to follow the doctors’ advice to take medicines regularly and change his or her unhealthy lifestyle — unless new complications

The Wuyuan couple had their second child in December 2015, two months after the central government made the decision to introduce the two-child policy nationwide but one month before the Jiangxi legislature amended its provincial regulation. Citing this fact, the Wuyuan family planning department claimed they were legally bound to collect the fee.

It seems the local officials are rather alien to the spirit of rule of law. According to the Law on Legislation, although laws and regulations do not have retrospective effect, a new law or regulation can be applied to better protect citizens’ legal rights and interests. The family planning policy regulation is such a regulation.

Before the provincial-level regulation was amended in 2016, quite a number of families had to pay high “social compensation fees” for having a second child. According to the new Jiangxi provincial regulation, these families should be exempted from paying the fees.

In January 2017, the then National Health and Family Planning Commission announced that family planning departments nationwide should better protect people’s interests by following the regulation.

Besides, exempting the families in Wuyuan from paying the “social compensation fees” for having the second children before the new regulation came into force will be in accordance with the central leadership’s intention of encouraging more couples to have two children.

Issuing prescriptions online

arise — which is a long-term but comparatively simple medical treatment process.

In such cases if the doctors could prescribe medicines and give other advice to the patients online, it can save medical resources as well as the patients’ time. Also, doctors could easily communicate with the patients through online apps or instant messengers, which are conducive to customizing medical treatment plans for the patients.

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