New mobile phones that can take photos undetected have continued to sell despite concern about possible intrusions of privacy.

Wang Qing, a 25-year-old woman who works at a Beijing advertising company, said: "I am thinking of getting a cleverer and cuter mobile phone. Being able to take photos will be a must.

"It will let my families and boyfriend share my interesting moments instantly."

However, Wang was speechless when asked what she would do if she found out that somebody secretly took a photo of her with such a mobile phone.

But she quickly stressed: "I would never do that myself."

Secret photography with a mobile phone has provoked wide-ranging discussions in the media recently. Often talked about is how a bathhouse in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, took the lead in the country in forbidding the use of such mobile phones to protect the privacy of its customers.

Most of those inquiring about the new mobile phones at the counter of vendor Meng Yanhui, who sells mobile phones at the prosperous Xuanwumen intersection in southern Beijing, denied they would take pictures in secret.

Meng said: "Some of them did show concern about secret photography but having such a special mobile phone seems too great a temptation to resist for these mostly young consumers.

Gao Rong, a Panasonic public-relations officer, yesterday subtly dismissed moral concern about the phones. "Our GD88 supports the new Multimedia Messaging Service of China Mobile," she said.

Bian Ying, a public-relations officer with Sanyo in Tianjin, North China, was more outspoken about the privacy issue.

Sanyo is a leading producer of code-division multiple-access phones in China. Its marketing has stressed the camera feature of its new CDMA mobile phones.

While admitting the possibility that someone might use the mobile phone for immoral purposes, she said that a young woman in Japan used her Sanyo mobile phone to successfully take a photo of the man trying to rape her. The photo greatly helped the police.

(China Daily November 13, 2002)