By Li Xing

A colleague of mine returned home last Thursday from a four-day trip overseas. He turned on his cell phone when the passengers were told to get ready to disembark.

Before he could even make a call home, his cell phone was jammed with about 80 messages. More than half of them junk, from people or small firms selling apartments at "best prices", private lessons to help his children get into college, and other services.

All of us who frequently receive these messages have stopped asking how salespeople get hold of our cell phone numbers.

Worse than spam messages are calls from salespeople who seem to know more about us than just our phone numbers. Many who receive calls discover the callers at the other end not only know their names, but also where they live and what brand of cars they have.

The insurance salespeople even know when private car-owners need to renew their insurances. Another colleague of mine said he received about 30 calls from different agents a month before it was time to renew his insurance.

It is now a matter of fact that there is rampant abuse of private personal information, especially in urban centers. You are at risk when supplying personal information in a job application, buying a car, a house or insurance. Even when signing for memberships to clubs, discounts or investing in the stock market.

As Li Mingrong, deputy procurator-general of Fujian Province and a deputy to the 11th National People's Congress, lamented during the current session, "there is little one can do to prevent personal information from being released".

A TV reporter bought a disk containing information about owners of certain brands of cars and made phone calls, only to discover that the information was shockingly accurate.

While personal information is being sold on the streets and abused, government agencies or State financial institutions are doing very little to make use of this information to deliver better services or establish a credit system for the good of the society.