4 ms·

Chinese Officials Selling Every Kind of Personal Data Online

54 points by vezycash 10y ago

devy 10y ago
This title is incomplete and wrong. It should be "Rogue officials" or "Blackmarket" selling personal private data. And the Chinese Ministry of Public Security is currently investigating these illegal activities.[1] (if you read Chinese) Also this is an OLD piece it should has the [2016] tag. [1] http://news.sina.com.cn/c/nd/2016-12-13/doc-ifxypipt1155123.shtml http://news.sina.com.cn/c/nd/2016-12-13/doc-ifxypipt1155123....
- jameskegel 10y ago
  Given the context, I could not readily discern whether you actually meant "rouge" or instead meant "rogue"; both seem equally appropriate.
  - devy 10y ago
    Thanks James! Typo fixed :)
- adamjc 10y ago
  A couple of weeks hardly seems 'OLD'.
  - devy 10y ago
    It's yesteryear - couple of my posts have had that treatment with the 2016 tag.
HillaryBriss 10y ago
> But as data becomes ever more precious, securing this resource could become virtually impossible -- particularly in a system like China's, which lacks adequate legal and political protections. I remember reading somewhere about seven or eight years back that the black market price for someone's NHS medical records in the UK was about 200 pounds.
shostack 10y ago
So when this info is used to rate citizens based on the recent article that showed up here, what does it mean for society if that data will be stolen/leaked and sold?
redmattred 10y ago
In the US, if you know MAC address of a given device, you can pay for access to realtime location data of that device from Skyhook Wireless: http://www.skyhookwireless.com/products/precision-location http://www.skyhookwireless.com/products/precision-location https://www.cnet.com/news/exclusive-googles-web-mapping-can-track-your-phone/ https://www.cnet.com/news/exclusive-googles-web-mapping-can-...
- droopyEyelids 10y ago
  I thought Apple took steps to mitigate that with MAC address randomization, but when I tried to find a link to share here I only saw stuff about how it doesn't actually work. http://www.imore.com/closer-look-ios-8s-mac-randomization http://www.imore.com/closer-look-ios-8s-mac-randomization
  - gurkendoktor 10y ago
    I've randomised the MAC address of my MacBook at every boot for months, and I've only run into a single problem (OmniFocus sync got confused). I don't know why their laptops don't do it already, or why it is a problem on iOS.

54 points by vezycash 10y ago

devy 10y ago

This title is incomplete and wrong. It should be "Rogue officials" or "Blackmarket" selling personal private data. And the Chinese Ministry of Public Security is currently investigating these illegal activities.[1] (if you read Chinese) Also this is an OLD piece it should has the [2016] tag. [1] http://news.sina.com.cn/c/nd/2016-12-13/doc-ifxypipt1155123.shtml http://news.sina.com.cn/c/nd/2016-12-13/doc-ifxypipt1155123....

jameskegel 10y ago
Given the context, I could not readily discern whether you actually meant "rouge" or instead meant "rogue"; both seem equally appropriate.
- devy 10y ago
  Thanks James! Typo fixed :)
adamjc 10y ago
A couple of weeks hardly seems 'OLD'.
- devy 10y ago
  It's yesteryear - couple of my posts have had that treatment with the 2016 tag.

HillaryBriss 10y ago

> But as data becomes ever more precious, securing this resource could become virtually impossible -- particularly in a system like China's, which lacks adequate legal and political protections. I remember reading somewhere about seven or eight years back that the black market price for someone's NHS medical records in the UK was about 200 pounds.

shostack 10y ago

So when this info is used to rate citizens based on the recent article that showed up here, what does it mean for society if that data will be stolen/leaked and sold?

redmattred 10y ago

In the US, if you know MAC address of a given device, you can pay for access to realtime location data of that device from Skyhook Wireless: http://www.skyhookwireless.com/products/precision-location http://www.skyhookwireless.com/products/precision-location https://www.cnet.com/news/exclusive-googles-web-mapping-can-track-your-phone/ https://www.cnet.com/news/exclusive-googles-web-mapping-can-...

droopyEyelids 10y ago
I thought Apple took steps to mitigate that with MAC address randomization, but when I tried to find a link to share here I only saw stuff about how it doesn't actually work. http://www.imore.com/closer-look-ios-8s-mac-randomization http://www.imore.com/closer-look-ios-8s-mac-randomization
- gurkendoktor 10y ago
  I've randomised the MAC address of my MacBook at every boot for months, and I've only run into a single problem (OmniFocus sync got confused). I don't know why their laptops don't do it already, or why it is a problem on iOS.