Airlines customer service was jailed for making "extra money" by reselling celebrity flight information!

Stars and artists are being followed, being blocked at airport arrivals, and being encountered by chance on flights. Behind these seemingly "fan enthusiasm" scenes, there may be a hidden business chain: a flight information is sold for only a few dozen yuan, and a ticket for the same flight can be used to "clear the border"... Recently, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released a case of infringement of citizens' personal information by Shu Mouping. This airline outsourced customer service person made "extra money" by checking flights and selling itineraries for two and a half years. He was not only held criminally responsible, but also filed a civil public interest lawsuit by the procuratorate.

Shu Mouping, who was born in 1990, is a telephone customer service worker for an airline outsourcing company. She is keen on chasing stars and has been active in the "fan circle" online group for a long time. There were people in the group who were posting about flights and people who were selling photos for people to take. She looked at them and got interested.

Shi Linshan, deputy director of the First Prosecution Department of the People's Procuratorate of Chaoyang District, Beijing: From October 2021 to April 2024, Shu Mouping took advantage of his position as a telephone customer service to log into the airline system, inquire about the flight information of celebrity artists, and then obtained it for sale in the group, involving more than 30 people and more than 100 flights, making illegal profits of more than 10,000 yuan.

Prosecutors pointed out that the flight information to be traveled can accurately locate the location of a passenger at a certain time in the future, which belongs to the category of personal information of citizens.

Shi Linshan: We believe that her behavior constitutes the crime of infringing on citizens’ personal information, and she should be held criminally responsible in accordance with the law.

On December 18, 2024, the Chaoyang District Procuratorate prosecuted Shu Mouping for the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information, and also filed an incidental civil public interest litigation.

Gao Yue, Director of the Sixth Procuratorial Department of the People's Procuratorate of Chaoyang District, Beijing: We have launched a civil public interest litigation procedure incidental to the criminal offense in accordance with the law, requiring her to bear more than 10,000 yuan in public interest damages based on the profits from the infringement of citizens' personal information, and publicly apologize for her infringement of citizens' personal information in news media at or above the provincial level to repair the damaged public interests.

Shu Mouping voluntarily pleaded guilty and accepted punishment. On February 11, 2025, the court of first instance sentenced her to ten months in prison, suspended for one year, and fined her 30,000 yuan. At the same time, she was ordered to pay compensation for public welfare damages and make a public apology. However, the procuratorate then discovered that the more than 10,000 yuan she earned from selling information was not recovered in accordance with the law, so she filed a protest in accordance with the law. On April 28, 2025, the court of second instance made a final judgment and ordered the recovery of Shu Mouping’s illegal gains.

Criminal accountability, trial supervision, and public welfare protection are all connected in this case.

The so-called "business" in the "rice circle" still happens from time to time. Mou Qi, a senior prosecutor assistant at the first level of the Public Interest Litigation Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, reminded fans and the platform:

For fans and star-chasing groups, buying, disseminating, and using other people's flight, address, and itinerary information is not only "improper" and "crossing the line", but may have stepped on the legal red line; besieging the airport and "passing through" the waiting area disrupts public order.

For industries and companies that hold citizens’ personal information, system permissions cannot be limited to the system. Query traces, abnormal warnings, and permission recovery must all fall to the specific operational level. Outsourcing does not mean outsourcing responsibility.

For online platforms, the platform cannot pretend not to see it when the group openly sells other people's itineraries and solicits proxy auctions. Clean up when it’s time to clean up, hand over when it’s time to hand over, call the police when it’s time to call the police. To protect personal information, every step must be guarded.