A newly established search engine, with a collection of 90
million people's personal details online, claimed itself to be the
biggest of its kind. But it stirs big concern on privacy, and an
alumni website is considering?bringing lawsuit against it.
When people log on www.ucloo.com and type in a person's name,
they'll find the page with full information about him or her,
including phone numbers, e-mail address, family address, marriage
situation, criminal records and?bank credit, which is supposed
to be hidden to outsiders. The instruction on the engine tells that
you only need to pay?one yuan for the total
disclosure.?
Where is the database from? People wonder. Some netizens suspect
the personal information has come from an alumni website
www.5460.net. In other words, Ucloo stole them via a certain
high-tech way.
In fact, www.5460.net has already accused Ucloo through its own
website for its illegal use of the relevant information. Now
managers of the alumni website are considering filing a lawsuit
against Ucloo, Shanghai Morning Post reported on December
27. But there is the problem that they cannot present any proof and
even don't know who runs Ucloo.
"So far, apart from the name of the company, we know nothing
about it," said Luo Wenxian, spokesperson for www.5460.net. "There
is no valid telephone number, nor registered address. We will
negotiate with it as soon as we can find its whereabouts. From our
point of view, we are also victims in this event."
According to Shanghai Daily, a source close to the
engine said it was set up by Kaosco Technology Inc. "The office was
once located in Pudong District, Shanghai, but the company has
already moved out," she said. "The CEO of the company is named
Randy Ding, a Chinese American, who registered the search engine in
Seattle, and he is currently in the US. There is no way to reach
him."
One of the earliest servers set up in China to provide chat
rooms for schoolmates, www.5460.net has now over 14 million users.
While registering into the alumni website, users are required to
fill a form for details of their personal information. They did not
expect that the information for the convenience of their classmates
would be stolen. The website had stopped public access to users'
information last month. As for the leaked information,?its
spokesperson said that?the company had no responsibility,
since some users hadn't applied the security settings the website
provided. He pointed out that the figure of 90 million publicized
by Ucloo could be some kind of bragging promotion.
Many people hold that as long as the website keeps its users'
personal information, it has the obligation to protect their
privacy by all possible means. Not to leak the information
intentionally is not enough.
Lawyer Liu Chunquan said stealing data from the website is an
infringement of privacy, adding that?"it's an abuse of
searching engine."?
But Xu Yi from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences told
Shanghai Daily that there is no legal precedent on
personal information leaking. "There is no clear definition about
personal information in China, and we do not have any law to
regulate such activities," he said.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, January 4, 2006)