个人信息私法保护的困境与出路

Predicament of Civil Law Protection of Personal Information and Its Solution

关于个人信息法律保护的研究,当前的主流观点采个体主义的立场,将个人信息视为私权的客体,以域外经验为证,认为私法可以有效保护公民的相关隐私权益。实际上,域外的相关法律并未承认个人信息权有对抗不特定第三人的效力;在现代信息社会中,以私法保护公民的隐私权益也常遇到困难。对隐私权益必须进行场景化的理解,个人信息流通具有公共性价值。法律保护个人信息的目的在于防范相关风险,促进个人信息在具体场景中的合理流通。宜通过"消费者法化",重新激发个人信息私法保护的活力;同时,采取公法框架进行风险规制,保护个人信息。

Contemporary studies on information privacy adopt an individualistic approach and view personal information as an object of civil right.These studies argue that,according to foreign experience,civil law could provide effective protection to privacy.Yet this article argues that Western information privacy law has never endorsed a civil right to personal information.Meanwhile,traditional civil law faces great difficulty in providing effective protection to citizens’privacy in the age of information society.We should adopt a contextualized understanding of privacy and realize that the flow of personal information is a common good.The aim of protecting personal data is to regulate the risks associate with personal information and to promote the proper flow of personal information in concrete context.Therefore,we should employ consumer protection law to reinvigorate the civil law protection of personal information.Meanwhile,we should also employ public law to regulate risks and protect personal information.