Privacy Rights Protection During The Collection Of Electronic Evidence In Criminal Proceedings

The revised "Criminal Procedure Law" explicitly set "electronic data" as anindependent evidence. Therefore, electronic evidence will play an increasinglyimportant role not only as the clues to solve the case but also verdict a case in future.Compared with traditional criminal evidence, the usage or collection of electronicevidence has many different places. In the process of electronic discovery, theforensic staff not only to invade the physical space but also invade the virtual space ofcitizens. Therefore, electronic forensics activity has high possibility to violate privacyright of citizens. This article will unfold from the basic theory about the electronicevidence, and elaborated detail the concept and characteristics of electronic evidence.On the basis of analysing reasons of electronic discovery violating citizens’ privacyright, and learning from the foreign experience of regulatory electronic discovery, theauthor try to put forward some immature proposals to perfect our country’s electronicdiscovery systems. Author also hopes to have some benefits for our country’s privacyright protection during electronic discovery.This paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter presents the problem ofviolating citizens’ privacy right during electronic discovery in the form of cases.The second chapter is an overview of the basic theory of electronic evidence,stress on the conception and characteristics of electronic forensics in order to extractthe differences between collection of electronic evidence and traditional criminal evidence. Next, the author explains the importance of electronic discovery in solvinga case to display the great value of it in the whole investigation measures.On the basis of the previous chapter, Chapter three explains the relation betweenelectronic discovery and privacy right protection from two points: legitimacy ofviolating privacy and necessary of protecting privacy during electronic discovery.The fourth chapter focuses on several key measures of electronic discovery, aswell as the main reasons of these types of measures’ privacy violations, and simplyintroducing the successful experience of foreign regulation on electronic discovery.In the fifth chapter author will design a balanced mechanisms between electronicdiscovery and privacy protection from the subject of electronic forensics, principles ofelectronic forensics, oversight mechanisms and relief mechanism etc.