On Civil Protection Of Personal Information

With the advent of the information society, the protection of personal information becomes a matter of concern. It involves issues in constitution law, civil law and administrative law with great research value. This paper focuses on the area of civil law, by means of comparing the United States with Germany, on behalf of the system of personal information protection of foreign countries, inquiring into the basic issues of the protection of personal information and try to constitute the civil system of the protection of personal information in theory in our country with turning over to think the shortcomings in the right of personality system and the tort law in our country at the same time.The full text is divided into five parts. The first section presents an overview of personal information, clearing definitions, characteristics and classifications of personal information. Personal information means the data which includes the name, sex, age, blood type, health status, race, occupation that can have a direct or indirect recognition ofthe person. It has four characteristics: (a) Its main is a person; (b) We can identify the individual directly or indirectly through it. (c) It is not necessarily known by its main; (d) It has double natures of personality and property. According to different standards, personal information can be divided into: direct and indirect, open and non-public, computer and non-computer process, and all these information should be protected by law. In foreign countries, there are three rifles named "personal privacy", "personal data" and "personal information" in legislation of personal information protection. But their purpose is the same as to protect the privacy of personal interests or personality interests carried on personal, information. Based on the legislative tradition in our country belonging to Civil Law Legal System, the scope of the differences in right to privacy between Common Law Legal System and Civil Law Legal System and the title of "personal information" is more humane care than the title of "personal data", I select the concept "personal information" in this paper.The second section studies the basis of the right to the protection of personal information and the values of it. In the United States, the perfect system of protection on privacy is the basis of the right to personal information. The concept of privacy in the United States covers a wide scope and is called general right of personality of the United States. With the advent of the information society, four traditional areas of the United States to protect privacy extend to the protection of all personal information, hence, the positive information privacy forms the basis for the protection of personal information. In Germany, the general right of personality in civil law is the right to protection of personal information. The general right of personality in civil law specifies from the general right of personality in the Constitution. Based on the breadth and diversity of human fight, the general right of personality is expected to meet the shortfall of the concrete right of personality by recognizing human's right to protect their dignity and freedom to develop their personal rights. The significance of the protection of personal information are: (a) the protection of individual human dignity and liberty ;(b) promoting trade cooperation in the information age ;(c) the need to safeguard democracy;(d) the need to coordinating and integrating district laws.The third part explores the information main's six rights to their personal information : the right of access to personal information, the right to confidentiality, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to blocking and the right to claim compensation. Among them, the right of access to personal information is particularly important because it is the basis of the other five fights. Meanwhile, in order to prevent the information main from abusing his rights, there always are some restrictions in laws: (a) based on the national interests and security; (b) based on social and public interests; (c) based on the interests of the third party.The fourth section deals with infringement of personal information and the corresponding civil liability. There are two types of tort mains: official body and non-official body ( including organizations and individuals ). The former applies the principle of liability without fault while the latter applies the principle of liability for fault and fault presumption .This distinction reflects the attribution principles of the legislation on vulnerable individuals in favor, the principal balance of information main and the control of information, and protection of information industry development .There are four elements in the infringement of personal information :damage to the fact of offense, the illegal act, the fault of the actor and the causal link between the illegal act and damage. Civil liability for infringement of personal information includes three types: getting rid of offense, compensation for the damage and compensation for pain and suffering.The last part discusses how to perfect the issue of the protection of personal information in our existing civil system. At present, China's current system of concrete right of personality cannot provide overall protection for personal information and the tort system only deals with the infringement of concrete right of personality without protection for general right of personality. Since China has not yet established an independent right of personality to privacy, the different legal traditions, different understandings of privacy between Civil Law Legal System and Common Law Legal System, China should not imitate the United States of privacy by equating personal information to personal privacy and put the personal information under the protection of privacy. In my opinion, we should establish general right of personality as a basis for the right to the protection of personal information and provide protection for general right of personality in tort law, which can make the protection of personal information in our civil law better.