Study On Personal Data Protection Laws

With the rapid development of internet, more and more people begin to have access to internet. The number of internet users are also increasing, and people have much deeper and more extensive knowledge of internet. In the end of 2014, the population of internet users became 649 million, with the coverage of internet rose to 47.9%. We can imagine that numerous data are collected, utilized and transmitted among such a large population.Today, it has become a trend to transmit personal data. The data from government, enterprises, individuals could be connected with the internet through personal computer, which are accessible through search engine and websites. The data collected through high speed computer network are processed and used for commercial purposes without the knowledge of the owner of such information. It is commonly seen that these value added information is sold under various circumstances. The development of the computer science and technology turns the process of data collection, reclassification and analyzing into a more detailed and complicated process. Personal data collected through electronic foot print of internet users recorded the internet users’ favorite websites, reading preference, consumption records, communication records and even credit records. These personal data are usually resold by other ISP or online sales enterprises without the consent of the owner of these information as an important reference for the companies to target their consumer groups. For example, marketing or advertising companies can collect personal data through credit card bills, book borrowing cards, telephone books, membership records, and tax payment certificates from government, and then analyze and categorize the personal data based on name, age, education background, income and consumption preference, and then resell to relevant enterprises. Therefore, the protection of personal data has become a new area that attracts enormous attention ever since computer technology has been used for data collection and processing for companies and individuals.Since the protection of personal data is a relatively new area within the legal regime, there are some controversies in respect of the definition of personal information, the attributes of the legal rights, and the nature of the legal liabilities. This essay, based on the requirement for the legislation for protection of personal data, discusses the legislation model for protection of personal data. Through the comparison of personal data laws from other countries in the world, this essay explores the implication of the legislation of protection of personal data, and proposes personal views and suggestions on the legislation in China.This essay includes four chapters. Chapter I summarizes the current situation of the protection of personal data in China in order to argue for the urgency and necessity of the legislation; Chapter II discusses the legal basis for protection of personal data in the hope to distinguish the relationship between protection of personal data, privacy protection and general human rights; Chapter III compares different legislation modes of different countries on the protection of personal data; and Chapter IV proposes suggestions on the legislation to protect personal data based on the above analysis and comparison.