On Property Protection Of Personal Information

With the progress of science and technology and the development of internet, we havealready joined the internet society; the person who possesses the information can stand thedominant place. However,“the water that bears the boat is the same that swallow it up”,information do bring fortune to people, and at the same time, it also brings challenge. Thenegative phenomenon such as the flooding of trash information, the illegal transactions andabuse of personal information make people believe that their personal information can beeasily got; when people enjoy the rich material life, they feel the most unsafe aboutthemselves; it seems that someone else oversees people’s every act. The deep reason is thatpersonal information has abundant business value, and also the infringement cost can notfrighten the infringer away. The academic researches which have already been developed forsome time in our country provide the theory basis for the publishing of substantive law. But,the main point of protecting personal information in china is very different from what is beenproposed in this article, thus it is necessary to compare, analyze and demonstrate betweenthem. The academic circle advocating the personal right protection model in personalinformation protection has some reason. Because the personal information attaches to“person”, and the “person’s” right is protected by personal right. However, this not means thatpersonal information attaches to the personality. In information society, personal informationhas its own commercial values, thus it could become a kind of absolute object in law withoutbeing affiliated to any other object. The abuse of personal right model is obvious. Firstly, thesufferer may get lost both in moral and property, according to the common sense that peopleshould be recouped in money for his economical loss, however, people’s only approach to geteconomical repay under personal right model is the compensation for moral damage whichhas strict restriction and the amount is little, people cannot gain equal compensation. Secondly,the very little infringement cost which due to the little compensation for infringement conniveat the personal information infringement phenomenon. Thirdly, in information society, thepersonal information’s business value is no longer affiliated to personality; instead, it canexist independently, and be adjusted by independent legal system. The personal informationproperty right is the independent legal system which adjusting the personal information’s business value alone.The first part of this paper analyses the present condition of the personal information’sprotection in property rights, and clear-cuts the relationship among the personal information,personal data and privacy, and also indicates the serous personal information infringement andthe difficulty in defending rights, meanwhile, the first part proposes the solution, namelyadmitting the personal information property rights. The second part does some feasibilityresearch in the personal information property rights. It proposes the feasibility of personalinformation property rights through comparatively analyzing the current theory, and provesthe feasibility in the height of jurisprudence with philosophy and economic angle. Then probethe feasibility of common protection for personal information with both personal informationproperty rights and personal rights, and coordinate the confliction in the applicable process.The third part is to definite the personal information property rights, and make clear thatunder the current property system which is divided into three parts: real right, creditor’s rights,intellectual property rights, personal information property rights is independent and do notmember of any kind of existing property right. The last part proposes the draft of personalinformation property rights with subject, object, content and legal responsibility. The subjectis only the information creator himself, not including the dead, the fetus and the family. Theobject is personal information; considering the common protection of personal rights andpersonal information property rights, author divide personal information into personalinformation relevant with dignity and irrelevant with dignity, personal information relevantwith dignity comprise image, privacy, reputation and so on; personal information irrelevantwith dignity comprise ID number, cell phone number, Email address, QQ number, consuminghabits, interesting and so on. The content includes the subject’s right and duty and therestricting of subject’s right. The subject’s right comprise retaining, revealing, coping, usingand disposing; the subject’s duty comprise making sure the provided personal informationcorrect, integrate and updating; the restricting of subject’s right mainly contain the usinglimits, using deadline and using conditions and so on. About assuming the duty, if only usingpersonal information in business without authority is infringement, as to the way of duty isrecording to the duty’s characteristic.