On The Legal Protection Of Internet Privacy Right

Along with rapid development of science and technology, information communication and daily communication surge revolutionary changes. Along with the expansion and extension of information technology, network further into the life of people, the function of the network also extended to business from simple communication, culture, education and other fields. Especially coming into the 21 st century, the Internet has become part of our life. People become highly dependent on the Internet in that it has provided great convenience for production and life,improve people’s quality of life. More than a tool for information exchange, the Internet has developed into people’s survival mode. Moreover, its influence goes far beyond any other information communication tools. On the other side, people’s personal life and privacy have been threatened. For instance, your own and another’s reputation can be damaged or dirtied by online statements and the privacy may be spread maliciously through the Internet. Sometimes, personal activities can be bothered by human flesh search engine. Therefore, it is essential to regulate network behaviors and protect citizens’ privacy.This paper selects two cases among eight typical cases of personal rights infringement on the Internet issued by the Supreme People’s Court on 9 October 2014. One is a civil case of dispute over Xu’s reputation damage against Song and Liu. The other is reputation damage case involving Yan sued two famous internet companies in Beijing. The introduction of the cases and the judgments can lead to some considerations to protect the network privacy. Then this paper is divided into four parts. Firstly, starting with the concepts of the right of privacy and network privacy, this paper presents that the right of privacy consists of the right to know, the right to decide and the right of relief. Secondly, it analyzes the network infringement from the subject, object and content. The subjects of network infringement include state institutions, businesses, employees and hackers. The objects are the range of network infringement, including three types. The contents refer to illegally collecting and using personal data, online tracking, sending spam and hacker attacks. Illegally collecting personal data has four specific forms. Thirdly, this paper introduces the typical protection pattern of the right of privacy, mainly represented by trade self-discipline pattern in U.S. and EU’s legal regulation, as well as analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the two protection patterns. At last, this paper introduces the specific regulations on the protection of the right of privacy and network privacy in China’s law, and focuses on the judicial interpretation of network infringement issued by the Supreme People’s Court, points out the shortcomings, as well as provides suggestions of legal regulation and trade self-discipline.