Legal basis: Article 253 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC). Staff of state organs and financial, telecommunications, transportation, education, medical and other units who, in violation of state regulations, sell or illegally provide citizens' personal information obtained by their own units in the course of performing their duties or providing services to others, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined. Whoever steals or illegally obtains the above information by other means, if the circumstances are serious, shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph. Where a unit commits the crimes mentioned in the preceding two paragraphs, it shall be fined, and the persons who are directly in charge and other persons who are directly responsible shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of each paragraph.