A cartoon portraying annoyed cell phones chasing a rat-disguised text message transmitter. [Photo:xinhuanet]

TV shopping may be gaining popularity in China. But some buyers are trying to forget their nightmarish experiences of the up and coming form of shopping.

"If you give your phone number to the salesman, you are trapped forever," said Fan Li, a resident of Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin province.

Fan started getting phone calls and text messages from a Beijing-based TV shopping agency after buying a diamond ring from them last April. "Usually, they call once a week. But sometimes they call three or four times a day. It's extremely annoying," she said.

Qi Shiyi faces the same dilemma. "I was often woken up by calls from shopping agencies that I didn't even know of. I don't know where they got my number," Qi said, "It's like torture. I'm tempted to change my phone number because of this."

At a time when the harassment by TV shopping agencies seem to outweigh its advantages, experts are calling for laws protecting consumers' privacy.

Businesses such as car dealers, real estate agents and home appliance suppliers are intruding on people's daily lives by using personal information acquired through tricky even illegal methods, said a social analysist surnamed Shao.

The expert from Jilin Academy of Social Sciences said a special law protecting personal information from strangers in the need of the hour. The law should also regulate businesses, who should be responsible for maintaining clients' privacy.

Current jurisdiction on privacy protection exist under different categories of the law, Shao explained.

(CRI July 28,2008)