新华社昨天发出的英文报道称，新法施行后，网络运营者将不能收集与服务无关的用户信息。在信息被滥用的情况下，用户也将有权要求运营者删除信息。
此外，网络运营者也不得泄露、篡改、毁损其收集的个人信息；任何个人和组织不得窃取或以其他非法方式获取个人信息，不得非法出售或非法向他人提供个人信息。
该法也明确规定，任何个人和组织不得利用网络进行诈骗或销售违禁品。违法者将面临高额罚款。
网络安全法是在去年11月7日由中国全国人大常委会通过，旨在保护个人信息、打击网络诈骗并明确“网络空间主权”原则。
Starting on Thursday, sale of users' personal information to be banned
A fundamental new cybersecurity law, which will take effect on Thursday and is intended to safeguard sovereignty in cyberspace, national security and the rights of citizens, bans online service providers from inappropriately collecting and selling users' personal information.
China has more than 730 million internet users－more than the population of the European Union－and nearly 700 million mobile phone users, according to government statistics.
President Xi Jinping called in April for better use of the internet to benefit the people and the country. Industry insiders interpreted this as indicating an integrated development of the internet and the economy.
According to a State Council five-year informatization plan, China will expand e-commerce transactions to more than 38 trillion yuan ($5.5 trillion) by 2020, up by 16 trillion yuan over 2015.
However, internet-related scams and data theft began to abound as internet use made economic headway in China.
The new law, which was passed by the country's top legislature in November, makes it clear that no one can use the internet to conduct fraud or sell prohibited goods.
Those who violate the provisions and infringe on personal information will face hefty fines, it stipulates.
To protect individuals' privacy, internet service providers are forbidden by the new law from collecting user information that is irrelevant to the services provided, and they should handle the information they do collect in line with laws and agreements.
Moreover, users will have the right to ask service providers to delete their personal information if such information is abused, according to the law.
Additionally, the new law says, cybersecurity management staff members must also protect information that is obtained and are banned from leaking or selling the information, including privacy and commercial secrets, it said.
Shen Yi, deputy director of the Cyberspace Governance Study Center at Fudan University, said that the people's sense of benefit should be the evaluation criteria for cybersecurity and informatization, rather than simply technical indexes.
Last year, China conducted several internet-clearing campaigns that included checks on websites, search engines and mobile apps, previous reports said. Some live-broadcast websites were shut down after they were found to be hosting or streaming illegal content, such as pornography.
In March, China issued its first international strategy for cyberspace cooperation to improve such cooperation worldwide.
Several other regulations will also take effect on Thursday. A regulation on online news requires government permission before releasing news on instant messaging apps or social websites. Additionally, civilian drones weighing more than 250 grams must be registered under real names to improve civil aviation safety, and the use of highly toxic pesticides on edible agricultural products is banned.
Xinhua contributed to this story.
