Private eye jailed for selling personal information

Minhang District People's Court sentenced a private investigator to six months in prison for illegally selling personal information, local media reported Tuesday.

The Jiangsu Province man, whom the court called Huang Gang, made a profit of 8,000 yuan ($1,305) by selling 53 pieces of personal information, according to a report in the Shanghai Morning Post.

Huang, who came to Shanghai in 2011, sold the information to clients who suspected their spouses were having extramarital affairs, said Wu Yixuan, a press officer for the Minhang District People's Court.

The information included personal credibility reports and hotel and flight booking records, according to the report.

Huang bought the information from a contact on QQ, an instant messaging service. The contact belonged to a gang that collected and sold personal information, Wu told the Global Times.

Minhang district police have not identified the gang and do not know how they obtained the information. The case remains under investigation, Wu said.

Police got onto the case on December 12, 2011, after they found out that Huang had sent a message to the contact to buy personal information.

Police traced Huang's QQ number and found out that he lived in Minhang district.

They arrested him in April and found 53 pieces of personal information on his computer.

Huang was also fined 10,000 yuan.