Consumer privacy protection has been written into an article in Shanghai's revised regulations on the protection of consumer rights and interests, which takes effect Wednesday.

With the development of information industry, consumers often are asked to provide their private information for some Internet services. But there are no effective methods to protect the consumers' privacy, which is frequently misused.

Since private information can be very useful for marketing, it is often passed on to other companies without permission. A man with the surname of Zhou provided his mobile phone number when he registered an e-mail address at a web site and then he constantly received junk messages.

According to the regulation, consumers' private information, including their name, gender, job, educational background, income, address, marriage and diseases, cannot be disclosed to anyone else without their permission. Consumers can ask compensation for the loss of their privacy.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2003)