Matthew Murphy of the Gerson Lehrman Group provides an analysis:
This article looks at a recent Chinese court decision which extended the application of Article 253 of the PRC Criminal Law to common citizens in China. Until this decision was issued, come commentators had thought that Article 253 was limited to the actions of employees of state agencies involved in special sectors, such as the telecoms sector. This article also provides a general overview of the various laws that can be used to protect privacy in China.
Read his analysis on GLGgroup.com. The analysis also includes discussion of a recently decided court case:
On 5 August 2010, the Shanghai Pudong New District Court heard a case involving 10 respondents who were suspected of the crime of illegal obtaining personal information. After 3.5 hours’ of testimony and argument, the court decided that all 10 respondents had committed the crime of illegal obtaining personal information. The court sentenced 9 of the defendants to jail terms of six months with a six month reprieve for two years and imposed fines of RMB10,000 to 40,000. One defendant was exempted from criminal punishment by the court.