Selling or illegally disclosing people's personal information may soon carry a criminal penalty, according to the draft amendment of the Criminal Law that began making its way through the top legislature Monday.

     If passed, staff with access to personal information, such as those working at government offices, financial, medical and educational institutions and transport, and communications departments, who are found to have sold or leaked it could face up to three years in jail.

     People that illegally obtain personal information also incur criminal penalties, under the draft submitted Monday to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

     Personal reputation and privacy are protected under the general provisions of China's civil law, but personal information, especially mobile phone numbers and consumption records, are often leaked, which is why citizens so often receive anonymous ad text messages on their mobile phones.

     Huang Taiyun, director of the criminal law division of NPC Standing Committee's legislative affairs commission, said leaked information threatened citizens' personal and material safety as well as infringing on their privacy.

     More than 90 percent of Chinese worry that their private details are too easily divulged and misused, according to a national survey by China Youth Daily last December,