Personal Information Protection Under The Rule Of Informed Consent

In recent years,with the advent of the era of big data,the economic benefits contained in personal information have gradually been revealed,becoming a goal pursued by information companies.They provide products and services and obtain higher profits by collecting,using,and transferring users’ personal information.The usual approach is to sign a privacy agreement with the information subject.Nowadays,more and more cases of the leakage and illegal use of personal information that have infringed the rights of users remind us that the protection of personal information and the regulation of privacy agreements are imminent.As the source of personal information acquisition,informed consent rule has been recognized as the legitimacy basis of information acquisition at home and abroad.It maintains the balance between the protection and utilization of personal information,and is considered as the imperial rule in this field.However,due to the complexity of the information industry,laws and regulations are not timely to deal with it,information subject’s right to know is difficult to be guaranteed,the effect of consent is insufficient,and the scope of application and exemption of informed consent is unclear.The status of the informed consent rule is challenged.Whether to abandon or how to improve the rule has become a hot topic.However,even if the implementation effect of the informed consent rule is not satisfactory,it can not deny the necessity of its existence.In the long run,the rule can maximize the protection of personal information rights and interests,can be consistent with the enterprise economy,and can promote the development of public interest.We should stick to the rule and improve it.As for how to improve the informed consent rules,we should start from the two aspects of protecting the right to know and improving the effectiveness of consent,and then make corresponding supplements by setting the exemption reasons of consent rules.First of all,to protect the user’s right to know is the basic requirement of the principle of good faith in the civil law,and it is also the necessary premise for the information subject to make a real consent.In practice,we should strengthen the notification of the subject,risk and the change of privacy agreement.At the same time,the form of notification should be concise,and a hierarchical notification method can be adopted.Secondly,in terms of improving the effectiveness of consent,we should ensure that the information subject can exercise the right of consent under the free will,exclude implied consent as an effective way of general consent,and in terms of system design,we should focus on selective consent,design dynamic consent and differentiated consent.Finally,in order to comply with the trend of the big data era,the consent rule can not be used as the only legal basis for information collection and use.More consent exemption reasons should be provided by law to ensure the flexibility of information use and increase economic benefits.In this regard,it is suggested to add three legal exemption reasons: emergency risk avoidance,public interest protection,and information anonymity.Moreover,the exemption system is constrained by the principles of knowing,legitimacy of purpose and minimization of information.