How To Balance Personal Information Protection In Database And The Public Interest

As the widely use of computer in our work and life, databases, which includes personal information, exist everywhere and raises the risk of personal information leak. The flow of personal data should be restricted in order to protect personal information, but high restriction on data flow will harm the efficiency and communication of commercial activities and thus do harm to the development of our society. It is the key issue facing every country in personal information protection legislation that to balance the individual protection and the public interest.There are many common principles, which also consist the basic rules to balance personal and public interests in this field, in EU and American personal data protection laws and regulations. However, due to different history and legal systems, EU and the US also have their separate legislation models. Combined legislation model has been introduced in EU, where the basic personal data protection laws and regulations cover all areas; in contrast, the US adopts separate legislation model, in which there is no basic law cover all areas and government record in pubic sector and financial, credit and medical data in private sector are subject to different laws and regulations and in which there is even no legislation on online personal data protection but just industrial self-regulation. Meanwhile, Taiwan and Japan also have established there regulations on personal data protection, which generally borrow EU's model but also have their special characteristics.The first chapter introduces some basic concepts such as database, personal information, personal data, public interest, etc., which helps to clear the way and to avoid confusion in further discussion.The second chapter is the brief introduction of two key related legal systems in the world, as well as some comparison of the two legislation models and some discussion on trans-border data transaction rules.There should be distinction between public and private sectors when balancing the personal data protection and public interest. Generally speaking, fulfilling the government functions, which is more related to the state and public interest, is the purpose for collecting and using these data in public sector; but in private sector, the opposite site of personal date protection is the free flowing of data and low transaction cost in commercial society. Thus, the Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 discuss the international legislation and practices in public sector and private sector respectively. Compared to private sector, more public interest would be involved in the government activities in personal data processing. Both EU and the US laws impose obligations to the date controller, and this dissertation emphasizes the exemption rules in EU and the US rules related to date processing in government agencies. The last chapter is the analysis on related laws and regulations in China and the conclusion after comparison of international legislation and practices. It probes into the legislation model that China should adopt and digs into some problems existing in the government information disclosure rules and the Experts Draft on China Personal Information Protection Law.