Research On Constitutional Protection Of The Network Privacy

As a basic human right, the privacy is an essential citizen right in the modern information society, the study on the privacy of citizens has just begun, and mostly confined to the various branches of law, especially the field of civil law. The constitutional protection of privacy mainly relies on the relevant provisions relating to the human dignity and the privacy interests of citizens. With the proliferation of computers, advances in information network technology, privacy is no longer confined to the traditional areas but gradually extending to the internet, the network privacy has become an important object of the privacy, although the network privacy is essentially in common with the privacy, but the network privacy has its unique characteristics, such as self-control, self-dominate and non-illegal use. Thus, the protection of the network particularity is necessary. Meanwhile, the development of internet information technology provides possibility for the government to carry out e-government and build a huge database, which also provide a more convenient and subtle approach for the government to monitor citizens online privacy. In the context of the continuous expansion of state power, the invasion of the network privacy of citizens from the governmental authority is increasingly serious, so the study on the constitutional protection of network privacy of citizens has important practical significance.This paper is divided into four parts. The first part is an overview of network privacy, through introducing the characteristics of “hidden” as the core of traditional privacy which is hidden and not affected, leads to the characteristics of “private” as the core of network privacy, which is self-dominate and self control, and on this basis, through comparing the difference between the traditional privacy and network privacy, it summarized that the network privacy is worth of the protection of constitution.The second part focuses on the analysis of the necessity of constitutional protection of citizens network privacy. First, the network privacy is the human right which emerged with the development and change of the society and need to be protected by the constitution, the network privacy establishes its position in the lineage of human rights with the value of personal dignity. Secondly, from the perspective of preventing infringements of public power, the value of the constitutional protection of network privacy lies in promoting the free development of man, and realizing the personal autonomy, and promoting the process of democratic constitutionalism. Thirdly, the protection of citizens network privacy in our country now mainly relies on the department law, especially the civil law, it lacks of the guidance and unification of the constitution, and therefore the constitutional protection of network privacy will benefit the establishment of the network privacy protection legal system with the guidance of the constitution. Finally, to defend the infringement of public power on the network privacy of citizens, constitutional protection of network privacy is extremely necessary.The third part describes the plight of the constitutional protection of network privacy in our country. This part analyzes the plight of the constitutional protection of the network privacy from the aspects of theory, institution and reality. In the aspect of theory and institution, as the privacy is not directly a fundamental constitutional rights in our country, and the protection of the privacy is confined to the department law. For the network privacy protection, the relevant legislation is lack of a clear constitutional basis, resulting in the scattered and lagging legislation, which lack of constitutional guidance, coupled with the absence of constitutional review system, the constitutional protection of network privacy is difficult to implement. In real life, the establishment of the government's huge database and the government's monitoring the network become the two main problems that threaten the network privacy of citizens. The plight of theory, institution and reality compels us to strengthen the constitutional protection of network privacy.The fourth part presents ways to improve the constitutional protection of network privacy. Firstly, the privacy should be written into the constitution, establishing the constitutional status of the privacy, ensure that the protection of network privacy has a direct constitutional basis. Secondly, constructing the special legislation on constitutional protection of network privacy, given the circumstance that the infringement of the public authority to the citizens network privacy is mainly the infringement to personal data privacy in the network environment, therefore, the author puts forward the legislative design of personal data privacy. Finally, the constitutional relief system of network privacy need to be improved, so that to ensure the implement of constitutional protection of network privacy.